Britney Hit with K-Fed's Legal Fees

Mon., Mar. 17, 2008 2:15 PM PDT by Sarah Hall

Kevin Federline's attorney is the latest addition to the Britney Spears payroll.

Court Commissioner Scott Gordon on Monday ordered the embattled pop star to give her ex $375,000 to cover his legal fees in their ongoing child custody dispute. (View the court documents.)

Federline's lawyer, Mark Vincent Kaplan, had asked for nearly $500,000 during a hearing last week.

Spears' attorney Stacy Phillips argued that Kaplan was overbilling and that Federline's expenditures—including a recent $2,000 tip on a restaurant bill of $365—showed that he was capable of covering some of his own fees.

However, Gordon ruled that Spears' actions were directly responsible for running up Federline's legal bills and that she should pick up the tab as a result.

Federline has previously claimed in court documents that he has no source of steady income, while Spears pulls in somewhere in the neighborhood of $700,000 a month.

Meanwhile, in another development in the ongoing saga of Spears' day-to-day existence, the singer's former confidante and sometime manager Sam Lutfi has agreed to keep his distance from her for at least another month.

A temporary restraining order against Lutfi had been scheduled to expire Monday; by agreeing to an extension, he postponed a hearing on whether to make the order permanent.

"There is an agreement between Sam Lutfi and the conservatorship for the next 30 days," Lutfi spokesman Michael Sands said in a statement. "Both parties are happy and will continue to work together to further resolve any issues that may have come up in the past."

A judge officially approved the agreement at a hearing Monday, at which neither Lutfi nor Spears' father and conservator, Jamie, were present.

The restraining order was put into action last month, after Lynne Spears alleged that Lutfi had drugged her daughter, held her hostage in her own home and assumed control of her finances.

L.A.Superior Court Commissioner Reva Goetz subsequently ordered Lutfi to stay at least 250 yards away from Spears and her home.

Also on Monday, Goetz approved a request from Jamie Spears' camp to sell an unspecified number of Britney's reported nine cars.