Los Angeles (E! Online) - Last month, the court ordered Britney Spears to pony up $120,000 for Kevin Federlines legal fees. Shell be happy to know shes getting quite the return on her investment.
Mark Vincent Kaplan, the lead attorney for Federline in his ongoing custody skirmish with Spears, has lashed out after the pop star bailed on a scheduled deposition Wednesday.
Spears failed to show at the morning session, a beyond last-minute pullout she blamed on high levels of anxiety--anxiety that apparently subsided enough to allow her to hit the town later that night.
On Thursday evening, Kaplan called Spears MIA status inexcusable and vowed to seek legal repercussions for her seeming indifference to court orders.
Im not mad--I can move forward with or without her, he told reporters while leaving the Wilshire restaurant in Santa Monica. But there will be a request to the court to address some kind of remedy to what I see as a willful nonappearance.
Kaplan said he found out only after the 10 a.m. meeting time had come and gone Wednesday that Spears would be a no-show. He said the singers attorney informed him of an apparently debilitating anxiety attack and that after consulting with a doctor via phone, Team Spears decided it would be best for her to sit that one out.
Just as she has done three times previous.
This time around, however, Spears speedy recovery from what her lawyers deemed a medical condition seemed almost miraculous to Kaplan, particularly after she was later caught on camera leaving the Four Seasons Beverly Hills just before 2 a.m.
She was in fact out later that day and night, he said. This deposition was a court-ordered proceeding. So, its a serious thing.
Its not fourth grade, where you get a doctors note and its all okay. She was ordered to attend. And if theres a legitimate reason for her not to attend, she would have to establish that.
Asked about Spears alleged agitation over the army of paparazzi congregated both outside her home and Kaplans offices, where the deposition was scheduled to occur, which supposedly played a part in Spears reticence to make the trip, Kaplan cried foul.
All I know is that in my office there were no paparazzi.
Still, Kaplan said he is not interested in punishing Spears for her absences.
If you dont obey a court order, you can be held in contempt, but were not really interested in punishing her. Were interested in getting facts and information that are inconsistent with her position or consistent with my clients position.
During Wednesdays scuttled Q&A, a date for which Kaplan and his cohorts had been laboring more than a year to secure, the 26-year-old tabloid staple was expected to be grilled on all manner of custody and parental issues, including her past drug and alcohol use, her inconsistence in abiding by court orders, her feet-steamrolling driving habits and her general fitness as a mother to sons Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1.
For now, 29-year-old Federline has primary custody of the tots, while Spears quality time with the boys remains relegated to monitored visitations.
Kaplan indicated Spears deposition dropout is unlikely to have any affect on the duos already hashed out holiday plans.
Kevin would like the children to be able to experience Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day with both himself, as well as their mom, and arrangements have been made for a schedule we believe will accommodate them.
The two sides are due back in court Jan. 23--that is, provided Kaplan doesnt call for an emergency hearing before then.
