At a hearing on Tuesday, pop star Britney Spears was reportedly granted additional visitation with her young sons, Sean Preston Federline and Jayden James Federline. TMZ.com reports that she will now have three days of supervised visitation every week with the boys. She was apparently getting one day of supervised visitation weekly since being discharged from inpatient psychiatric care earlier this year. A formal custody evaluation was submitted to the court and attorneys last week and was reportedly had both positive and negative things to say about the pop singer as a parent. Reports indicate that she is not yet allowed to keep her sons for overnight visits but that the plan is to slowly increase the time she spends with the boys over time. The goal apparently is to restore the 50/50 physical custody arrangement that she previously had with ex-husband Kevin Federline.

It is important to note that Federline retains all legal custody of the boys at this point. Spears has only visitation. She is currently under the conservatorship of her father Jamie Spears and has been since her hospitalization. Jamie Spears has legal control of his daughter’s personal and financial affairs at least until a July hearing in that case. It is not surprising then that Commissioner Scott Gordon in the custody case has not restored any legal custody rights to Spears - seeing as she has been deemed by the probate court to be unfit to handle her own affairs at this time.

Still, the visitation plan indicates that Commissioner Gordon and the Federline camp are pleased with Spears’ mental health progress and her father’s supervision. It is generally a family court’s goal to keep parents and children together and to facilitate meaningful familial relationships. It appears that the court in this case has a specific plan on how to accomplish that for the Spears-Federline family. Federline’s attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan indicated that the ex-couple had “mostly” agreed on the revised visitation plan and that he was cautiously optimistic about moving forward with the new, graduated plan.

Britney Spears’ and Kevin Federline’s attorneys were at it again last week. The lawyers appeared before Commissioner Scott Gordon in Los Angeles to argue over legal fees. Today, Spears was ordered to pay $375,000 of Federline’s attorney’s fees in the custody modification battle that has been heated for months. While Federline receives child support from Spears for their two young sons and presumably makes some sort of income for his intermittent acting gigs and public appearances, he is clearly not in the same financial position as Spears, who reportedly makes at least $700,000 per month. Federline apparently owes nearly $500,000 to his attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan. Stacy Phillips, Spears’ newest attorney, claims that Spears has already spent over $1 million on the custody case.

Phillips argued that Federline has plenty of money available to pay his own fees, pointing out a $2,000 tip Federline left on a $365 restaurant check recently and also argued that Kaplan’s fees were unreasonable. Kaplan countered by arguing that he was in court on the case eight times between September and January alone due solely to Spears’ behavior and bad judgment and in support of Federline’s attempts to protect the welfare of the children. Several additional court appearances were necessary after Spears’ two involuntary psychiatric commitments in January and February of this year. Continue reading "Britney Ordered to Pay K-Fed’s Legal Fees"