Katie Holmes' Emergency Filing: To Keep Suri Safe From Tom Cruise — Top Attorney

View Gallery 54 Photos.

Katie looked happier than she has in months while eating ice cream on July 3 with Suri. That’s because she took an extreme legal step earlier in the day to ensure her daughter’s well-being! Only HollywoodLife.com has the EXCLUSIVE details about what her current court strategy means for the upcoming cust0dy battle.

HollywoodLife.com reported EXCLUSIVELY that Katie Holmes filed an ’emergent application’ to make her divorce trial from Tom Cruise play out in public. According to a legal expert, Katie did this to keep her daughter Suri safe from her father!HollywoodLife.com spoke EXCLUSIVELY with celebrity divorce attorney Vikki Ziegler, author of The Pre-Marital Planner, who told us what this legal move says about 33-year-old Katie’s strategy.”Tom is probably asking for parenting time,” she said. “Katie’s saying, ‘I want this case tried in New York, I want temporary full custody, I want child support and I may want my legal bills paid as well.’ She also may request that parental visits are supervised as well.”She must have really good reasons why she wants the child’s visits to be supervised, and that’s why she’s asking in court on an emergency basis for a hearing. This is not normal protocol. She’s asking for it to be reviewed on an expedited basis — likely to protect the child from him. The question is ‘Why?’ It’s a very bold move.”Vicki tells us that that Tom will do everything in his power to try and retain his parental rights.”He can make an application to have his out-of-state California attorney represent him, but it’s likely he will hire a New York City attorney who knows the judges here,” she said. “He has to respond by Thursday or Friday. He can ask for the case to be dismissed and to have the case transferred to California. He can also cross-move and ask for custody and parental time. The question of whether the case will be transferred to California will be up to the judge.”Typically, these cases are done in public court, but he’s going to argue that it should be done in closed court. She probably wants it in public to apply pressure to him. She may be trying to force him to settle on her terms, because if he doesn’t agree, she could make information public that could hurt his reputation. “Even with his potential legal moves, Vicki says Tom has an uphill legal battle ahead of him.”The ’emergent application’ was strategically filed,” she said. “The fact that they’ve already given it a court date is a big deal — the courts have agreed to hear her application because they are convinced she has the grounds to file it.”HollywoodLife.com has also heard that Katie was in the courthouse for the filing.This legal move must have given her plenty of confidence. When the New York Daily News asked her about the split later that day while she was grocery shopping, she told a reporter, “I’m all right — thank you.”HollywoodLife.com reached out to reps for both Tom and Katie, but we have not received a comment.Do YOU think this will be the ugliest celebrity divorce ever, HollywoodLifers?