Mark Vincent Kaplan Defends K-Fed Spending Habits

A $1,100 tip at an L.A. restaurant, a $2,000 tip at a Vegas strip club, and on and on and on. Kevin Federline's spending, detailed in court documents, certainly has his critics buzzing over his apparently lavish lifestyle.

Enter Mark Vincent Kaplan.

K-Fed's attorney and confidant says, basically, that the haters need to look at the bigger picture before passing judgment on his client.

"He's totally getting a bad rap here," says Kaplan, who says that the "court of public opinion" is focusing on "a few expenditures." "It seems like an unnecessary attempt to knock him when there's really no basis to do so."

Kaplan claims that even the most ridiculed charge on the list of K-Fed's business expenses - a $2,000 Scores strip club tip - has an explanation.

"That was for a group of people for a friend's bachelor party," he said, adding that it wasn't even a tip at all: "That's just how the club categorized it."

Many of Federline's tips are certainly far from extravagant. During a September trip to Fat Tony's Italian Restaurant, he tipped $10 on a $41.69 bill.

The papers - used by Britney Spears' legal team to try to prove he, not Britney, should pay his own damn legal bills, show two sides to K-Fed, however.

Last August, he spent $304.30 to fly to Las Vegas on low-cost Southwest Airlines. But once he was there, he did not hold back, dropping $3,038.69 at the Hard Rock Beach Club, $3,863.50 at the hot club Tao, and $10,220.65 at The Venetian.

Some of his spending is less rock star and more average dad. Charges at Target ($115.10), IKEA ($246.66) and Albertson's grocery store ($405.75) fill his statements, with occasional shopping sprees ... at toy stores.

Mark Vincent Kaplan disagrees with Britney Spears' lawyers, who claim that the larger expenses suggest Federline should foot some of the massive fees she has been ordered to pay as a result of their custody battle.

"Don't focus on whether he spent too much money going on a vacation or going to a restaurant," says Kaplan. "Focus â€" as the court does â€" on was he reasonable having to incur these [court] fees? The answer is a resounding yes."

Kaplan says that the fees were "built up quite frankly by the conduct of [Britney Spears]" during some her court-delaying, widely-public antics.

"I don't think the court should be distracted by the fact that he went to Las Vegas and spent $1,000 or $5,000," says Kaplan. "It's not relevant."