Britney Spears’ father on Tuesday filed a petition to end the court conservatorship that has overseen the finances and controlled much of the pop singer’s life since 2008.
Jamie Spears, who agreed last month to eventually step down from his longtime role as conservator of his daughter’s estate, asked the Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday to “now seriously consider whether this conservatorship is no longer required.”
On Aug. 12, Jamie Spears didn’t say that he would immediately step aside from the role, but said that he would do so once there could be “an orderly transition to a new conservator.” He has repeatedly said there is no justification for his removal, and he has acted only in his daughter’s best interest.
“As Mr. Spears has said again and again, all he wants is what is best for his daughter,” his lawyer, Vivian Lee Thoreen, wrote in this week’s filing. “If Ms. Spears wants to terminate the conservatorship and believes that she can handle her own life, Mr. Spears believes that she should get that chance.”
The move will need to be approved by Judge Brenda Penny, who oversees the case.
Matthew Rosengart, the 39-year-old pop star’s attorney, said in an email that the filing “represents another legal victory for Britney Spears—a massive one—as well as vindication for Ms. Spears.”
Jamie Spears had been the target of much of the anger surrounding the conservatorship from both his daughter and the public.
A petition from Britney Spears’ attorney to remove him was to be heard at the next hearing in the case on Sept. 29.
In a June court hearing, the singer had called the conservatorship arrangement “abusive.”
“I just want my life back,” Britney Spears said on June 23. “And it’s been 13 years and it’s enough. It’s been a long time since I’ve owned my money. And it’s my wish and my dream for all of this to end without being tested.”
The singer also testified in June that the conservatorship was so “abusive,” she wanted to “sue her family.” In a statement, Spears claimed she was “bullied” and exploited by the conservatorship and by her father.
She called her father “ignorant” and controlling. “He loved every minute of it, the control he had. He loved it,” Spears said.
“I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive,” Spears said. “I don’t feel like I can live a full life.”
Jamie Spears filed a petition in July to probe his daughter’s allegations, which he has denied. He said the issues were out of his control because he had stepped down as conservator of his daughter’s person, handing the role off to court-appointed professional Jodi Montgomery in September 2019.
Tuesday’s filing notes that Britney Spears said she did not know she could file a petition to end the conservatorship, which she has yet to do. It says that Judge Penny’s decision in July to allow her to select Rosengart as her attorney demonstrates that the court trusts her with major choices. And it says evidence shows she has apparently “demonstrated a level of independence” by doing things like driving herself around Southern California.
It also cites her desire to make her own decisions on therapy and other medical care.
“If Ms. Spears has the capacity and capability to engage counsel on her own, she presumably has capacity and capability to handle other contractual and business matters,” Thoreen wrote in the new filing.
Penny, the judge with the ultimate power over the conservatorship, has not appeared inclined to end it before, but she has also never been presented with such a clear opportunity.
