Recovering actress Lindsay Lohan will not be served papers in her ongoing legal battle with her former fashion collaborators until she completes her court-ordered rehab treatment.

The Mean Girls star is locked in a bitter dispute with bosses at D.N.A.M. Apparel Industries after she filed a $1.1 million (£709,678) lawsuit against the clothing manufacturers earlier this year (13), claiming she was cheated out of her share of profits when a 2009 business deal fell apart.

They countersued for breach of contract and fraud, blaming Lohan's "drug-addled image" and legal problems for making it impossible to sell her 6126 Collection to retailers.

The actress has yet to be served papers alerting her to the court challenge, but in a twist of irony, D.N.A.M. bosses have since agreed to wait until she is out of rehab in mid-August (13) "in a gesture of good faith and so as not to disturb her healing process", reports Tmz.com.

Lohan checked into California's Betty Ford clinic on 3 May (13) to begin a three-month rehab stint, but she transferred to the Cliffside clinic in Malibu less than six weeks later.

The move was reportedly approved by a judge overseeing Lohan's case as the new venue is more suited to a 90-day course of treatment, which she was sentenced to in lieu of jail time after pleading no contest to charges relating to a car crash in California last summer (12).