Lawyers for AEG have been in court this week in the US trying to persuade a judge to ban published emails between execs at the live firm about the fated Michael Jackson ‘This Is It’ residency from being presented as part of a legal battle between the company and the Jackson family.

As much previously reported, Katherine Jackson, mother of Michael, is suing AEG for damages over the death of her son, on the basis the company hired Dr Conrad Murray, the medic jailed for causing the late king of pop’s premature death through negligence. AEG counters that Jackson himself appointed and managed Murray, so it cannot be held liable for the doctor’s actions.

Last month the LA Times published a batch of emails from early 2009 between AEG staff, and personnel working on preparations for the ‘This Is It’ show, which expressed concerns about Jackson’s mental and physical well-being, many of which ran contrary to the live firm’s official statements at the time.

AEG has accused someone linked to the Jackson family of leaking the emails, which the firm says it provided to the Jacksons in relation to the wrongful-death lawsuit. According to CNN, AEG’s lawyer Marvin Putnam told the LA court this week: “It is clear that only one entity could have done it”.

The leaking of the emails was arguably damaging for AEG, because the live firm was in a separate legal battle, since settled, with insurers Lloyds Of London, over the insurance policy for the ‘This Is It’ venture. Lloyds said that AEG misrepresented Jackson’s state of health when taking out an insurance policy, a claim never tested in court, but which the emails possibly showed to be at least partly true.

The leaking of the emails was arguably damaging for AEG, because the live firm was in a separate legal battle, since settled, with insurers Lloyds Of London, over the insurance policy for the ‘This Is It’ venture. Lloyds said that AEG misrepresented Jackson’s state of health when taking out an insurance policy, a claim never tested in court, but which the emails possibly showed to be at least partly true.

Putnam wants Judge Yvette Palazuelos to punish the Jacksons for allegedly passing confidential documents related to their case to a newspaper by banning them from using the emails when the Jacksons v AEG legal battle gets to court.

But the Jacksons deny any wrongdoing, saying no one associated with the family passed any documents to the LA Times. Countering Putnam this week, various legal reps for the Jackson clan argued that their clients had no interest in leaking the emails (because they portrayed Michael in a bad light, and the Jackson Estate is also fighting Lloyds for an insurance pay out). One even proposed that AEG might have leaked the emails themselves to make the Jackson family look bad.

In heated exchanges, one Jackson rep, Kevin Boyle, alleged that Putnam had claimed Jackson’s ten year old son Blanket may have been behind the leak. Boyle exclaimed: “What’s the idea, that Blanket Jackson got some documents and copied them and somehow walked them from Calabasas to [LA Times reporter] Harriet Ryan?”

Ryan says she won’t reveal her sources regards the Jackson story, though Howard Mann, an occasional business associate of Katherine Jackson, has admitted to providing some materials to the LA Times journalist. But either way, the Jackson legal team insist there has been no wrong doing on their part, concluding that AEG has manufactured this whole sideshow to delay the main wrongful death lawsuit case from getting to court.

Quite why AEG would want such a delay isn’t clear, but these complications have indeed led to the court hearing on Jacksons v AEG to be delayed until next April.