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LEGAL BRIEFS ''Family Ties'' star-turned-punk rocker Tina Yothers almost went to jail over a small-claims dispute with her former publicity firm, which claims she owes them $5,050 for publicity efforts related to the release of her band Jaded's CD last year. The CD was released on the Harvest Product label, whose owner, Bob Jones, was also cited in the complaint by Luck Media & Marketing. A judgment against Yothers and Jones was handed down in May, but by November, the firm still hadn't been paid. When Yothers failed to appear at a court date scheduled for last Wednesday, a bench warrant was issued for her arrest. Yothers did appear in court on Friday, swearing that the dispute was entirely between Jones and Luck Media, and that she'd never been served with a summons for the earlier court date. A new date of Jan. 10 has been set for Yothers and Jones to appear in court and resolve the claim.

BABY BOOM Toni Braxton and husband of six months Keri Lewis became parents on Sunday when Braxton delivered a 5-pound, 12-ounce boy. He's the first child for the R&B siren and her onetime keyboardist. They named him Denim Cole Braxton Lewis. If the child had been a girl, would they have named her Jean?...

Movie producer Steve Bing says he doubts he's the father of the child his ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley, is expecting. ''Ms. Hurley and I were not in an exclusive relationship when she became pregnant,'' he said in a statement. ''It is her choice to be a single mother.'' However, he added, ''If I am indeed the father, I will be an extremely involved and responsible parent.''

PASSING NOTES Kal Mann, the lyricist who cowrote several early rock 'n' roll hits with composer Dave Appell, died at 84 of Alzheimer's disease last Wednesday in Pompano Beach, Fla. A key member of the Philadelphia scene that sprang up around Dick Clark's ''American Bandstand'' in the late 1950s, Mann was a cofounder of Cameo/Parkway, the record label that launched the careers of Chubby Checker (for whom Mann wrote ''Let's Twist Again''), Bobby Rydell (whose first hit was Mann's ''Kissin' Time''), the Orlons (who had a hit with Mann's ''South Street''), and the Dovells (who charted with Mann's ''Bristol Stomp'').