New Brit Custody Hearing on Tap

Mon., Feb. 18, 2008 9:30 PM PST by Ken Baker and Marcus Errico

With another date looming Tuesday morning in Britney Spears' seemingly unending court docket, her supposed team is ramping up the rhetoric.

At 8:30 a.m., Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon will convene the latest closed-door session in the ongoing custody case between Spears and ex-husband Kevin Federline.

Among the orders of business: Just exactly who will represent Spears, now that the firm of Trope and Trope has bailed on the case. Laura Wasser, who was Spears' previous counsel in the case, had been rumored to be coming back, but a source familiar with the case tells E! News that Stacy Phillips is the leading candidate. Phillips represented Tori Spelling, Axl Rose and Bobby Brown in their divorces. In any event, Gordon must sign off on the move first.

Gordon is also scheduled to review the infamous paparazzi footage of Spears running a red light with her children and a court-appointed monitor in the car.

The 26-year-old "Gimme More" warbler, who hasn't seen sons Sean Preston and Jayden James since Jan. 3, is not expected to be present.

Meanwhile, although the next scheduled hearing in Spears' conservatorship case isn't scheduled until Mar. 10, the man who hopes to be her lawyer is lashing out at the court's ruling placing her father Jamie, and a lawyer in charge of her affairs.

"The conservatorship is radically oppressive and unnecessary," says attorney Jon Eardley, who joined the fray last week at the urging of Spears' former manager and confidant Sam Lutfi.

Eardley, who admits to not having met Spears, filed a petition to move the conservatorship to federal court, claiming that the erstwhile Mouseketeer's civil rights were being violated.

Legal experts have told E! News that the chances of the case being transferred are slim.

"In Britney's case, the commissioner revoked her power to retain her own legal counsel," Kevin Whittaker, a San Francisco-based litigation attorney, who's not involved in the Spears case, told E! News last week. "Oftentimes, the conservatee can retain their own legal counsel. This wasn't the case with Britney. So the new attorney's claim to be her legal counsel will be found invalid."

Spears, who has been, in the words of her parents, in the "throes of a mental health crisis," has yet to make any public comments about her supposed new legal eagles.

Nonetheless, Eardley, through spokesman Michael Sands, continues to bang the drum.

Sands tells E! News that while Spears and Eardley haven't met, they have had spoken "Several times" over the last week. The spokesman says Spears instructed Eardley to do "whatever is necessary" to get her father's "sham conservatorship" rescinded.

"When your civil rights are violated, it is no laughing matter," says Sands.

Sands also happens to rep Lutfi, who remains largely out of sight (Paris Hilton parties, notwithstanding) after being targeted by a restraining order by Spears' family.

"Sam is doing real good," says Sands, adding that Lutfi has yet to be served with the restraining order. And, despite rumors to the contrary, Sands says he is not aware of Spears and Lutfi having any contact.

A hearing over the restraining order is set for this Friday.