By IAN BAILEY -- Canadian Press

VANCOUVER -- Sarah McLachlan says she has been busy "living my life" over the last decade rather than worrying about the claims of a man suing her in B.C. Supreme Court to win credit for work on her early songs.

But during her fourth day of testimony Monday, the superstar singer and founder of the Lilith Fair tour of female vocalists expressed some regret that she had not confronted the allegations of Darryl Neudorf years ago.

Neudorf, a Vancouver producer and former drummer with the band 54-40, is suing McLachlan for credit and royalties he feels he earned through his contributions to four songs on McLachlan's debut album Touch.

The songs are Vox, Sad Clown, Steaming and Strange World -- tracks from the album that sold more than 600,000 copies and launched a career that has seen McLachlan become one of North America's top female vocalists.

"I haven't been brooding over this for 10 years," McLachlan told Neudorf's lawyer, Jonathan Simkin, in a spirited round of cross-examination as the trial entered its fifth week Monday.

"I have been living my life. I have moved on," McLachlan, 30, said from the stand, glaring at Simkin.

"Yes. I took it seriously, but I don't think I thought as much about it as I should have."

Neudorf filed his lawsuit in 1995, capping years of debate over his proper credit for his work on Touch, released in 1988. Efforts to mediate a settlement failed before the trial began in October.

McLachlan's comments came in the midst of several hours of cross-examination in which Simkin accused McLachlan of tailoring the truth to suit her ends.

He picked away at inconsistencies between evidence she gave in discovery sessions and evidence she provided on the stand.

But McLachlan stuck to her argument that she had not provided Neudorf with songwriting credit because she did not think he deserved it.

Neudorf, a Vancouver-based musician McLachlan has described as a "sweet man," was recruited by her label in late 1987 to help the then-inexperienced singer assemble songs for her debut album Touch.

"In 1988, when my mind was clear, if I thought that (Neudorf) had done songwriting, I would have offered him credit for it," she said.

Still, she conceded she may have accepted some of Neudorf's suggestions from their jamming sessions on one song, Steaming.

McLachlan and Simkin went at each other for several hours Monday, sparring over everything from exactly when the season of spring begins to whether she should be allowed to play her guitar to prove a point about chords.

At another point, McLachlan and Simkin sparred over her 1988 acceptance speech for the Juno earned for the song Building a Mystery.

Producer Pierre Marchand wrote 75 per cent of the song's lyrics, but Simkin pointed out that McLachlan forgot to thank him in her acceptance speech.

"I felt awful afterwards," said McLachlan, then paused.

"I can see what you're getting at. You're trying to say that I never give credit," she told Simkin, who denied the suggestion.

"I hardly think you can say that because I did not give him credit in a Juno award that I don't give credit."

The trial was initially slotted to run three weeks but is running on with no end in sight.

McLachlan has cleared her schedule for the proceedings.

The most immediate item on McLachlan's agenda beyond the trial is a possible Lilith Fair tour of Australia in February or March.