BABIESUpdate: Court Gives Brit Sleepover Rights
Oct. 11 2007, Published 7:28 a.m. ET
UPDATE: After Britney's surprise visit to the courthouse after lawyers for both sides had agreed to take up the matter at a later time, the pop star now has a small bright spot to look forward to as it's been decided that Brit will be allowed one weekly overnight visit from her children. More details to come...
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Looks like Britney Spears' emergency hearing wasn't such an emergency after all, as lawyers from both sides of the custody battle have already called it a day in the hearing to decide whether or not the pop star can have overnight visits with her two young sons.
Earlier in the day, attorneys for Britney begged a judge to overlook the singer's recent indiscretions and let her sons stay overnight with her.
They suggested to the court that Brit's mom, Lynne, could take over as the legally required monitor during the boys' visits.
But, as reported earlier, Brit-Brit did not appear at L.A. Superior Court Oct. 11, although her attorneys had urged her to do so, to personally ask Family Law Commissioner Scott M. Gordon to grant overnight visits with her sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James.
"For a 1- and 2-year-old child, developmentally, it is psychologically traumatizing to have their routine disrupted," said attorney Anne Kiley, filling in for Brit's lead attorney Sorrell Trope, who's vacationing in Italy.
Kiley said when the boys are with Britney, they take an afternoon nap "but need to be woken up at 3 p.m. so they can get home" to Kevin Federline by the court-ordered time, 5 p.m.
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But Gordon was not phased by the "emergency ex-parte request," telling Kiley: "This doesn't seem like an 'emergency.' I've made all these rules, and your client made a choice not to follow them. This is why this current order was made."
"Why are we even here?" asked Kevin's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan.
"She has trust issues," Kiley explained of Brit. "It takes her a while to build trust. We're finally getting her to trust us."
Kiley hinted that at the time of the order, Brit did not trust her then-newly hired counsel.
Sighing with frustration, the judge said, "I don't have any drug tests (results, here before me). No test results have been forwarded to this court."
The judge told both sides to "go have some coffee and try to work out the visitation issue."
Court reconvened at 11:23 a.m., when attorneys for both parties and
commissioner Gordon stepped back into the courtroom from judge's
chambers.
"So we've decided to allow counsel for both parties to continue to
work out the visitation schedule between themselves," the judge said.
"When an agreement has been reached, counsel will contact this court, and a hearing date will be set.
"Is that correct, counsel?"
"Yes, sir," the attorneys replied.
"Then this hearing has ended," at 11:25 a.m.
By Jack Carter
