Brandy Ordered to Pay Former Housekeeper's Legal Fees

Last year R&B singer Brandy settled an wrongful lawsuit with her former housekeeper for $40k [click here if you missed that].

Now Brandy has been ordered to pay her former maid's legal fees...

  From Radar Online

According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, a hearing was held this week in the ex-employee Maria Elizabeth Castaneda’s lawsuit to determine attorney fees.

In the lawsuit, Castaneda demanded in excess of $250k in damages. However, as we first reported, Brandy settled the suit and agreed to pay Castaneda $40k.

A couple of weeks later after the settlement, Castaneda demanded an additional $87k to cover her legal bills. Brandy opposed the request for legal fees. Her lawyer said the amount was “frankly astounding”.

He said the $87k demand was “excessive, unreasonable, and entirely unsupported. This case was incorrectly pled on its face, poorly litigated, and settled quickly for a mere $40,000. Lipeles Law Group has further failed to adequately support any of their requested fees.”

At the recent hearing, the judge signed off on the request for attorney fees but reduced the amount to $31,821.40.

The order noted, “[Castaneda] asserts that [Brandy’s] star status warrants a boost in the fee award. The Court is not convinced. Indeed, it may be that an early settlement pegged to the level of [Castaneda’s] wage loss was available early in the case because a celebrity like [Brandy] would want to end an unflattering lawsuit rapidly to keep it out of the public eye.”