By Brianne Tracy
In court documents obtained by PEOPLE on Friday,
Jamie, 68, responded to the pop star, 38, and her attorney Samuel D.
Ingham III's filing last week which asked the judge to deny his motions
to seal parts of the ongoing conservatorship case of her estate. Instead
of making proceedings private, Britney and her legal team say they want
to make the case "transparent" with her fans.
Jamie, however, argues in the new filing that the
public does not need to know everything and says he is wanting to seal
some aspects of the case to help his daughter keep parts of her life,
her children's lives, her medical details and her "susceptibility to
undue influence" private.
Spears' conservatorship was first placed in 2008
with her father being named the permanent conservator of her affairs and
attorney Andrew Wallet the permanent co-conservator of her estate.
After Jamie stepped down due to health reasons in September 2019, Jodi Montgomery replaced him as Britney's temporary conservator.
"Ms. Spears has a right to privacy that overcomes
the public’s right of general access to the conservatorship proceeding,"
the filing says.
"And given the frequently pernicious use of
sensitive and private information of celebrities, Mr. Spears has sought
through the years to protect the conservatee — his daughter — from the
pain that such free access to the information inevitably would cause
her," the filing continues.
Jamie further argues that before Britney can waive
her right to privacy regarding her medical information and sensitive
personal information "it must be determined that she has the capacity to
understand the consequences of her waiver."
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| Britney Spears and father Jamie
Chris Farina/Corbis/Getty
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Jamie asserts that his motion to seal was filed to
also "protect the privacy rights of a third party, specifically the name
and address of a third party where [Britney's mother] Lynne Spears has
requested that she be served in this proceeding" and "to take the
precautionary step to allow" for Montgomery to assert Britney's privacy
rights, which she has not done yet.
"To date, Ms. Montgomery has not opposed the Motion
to Seal and has not informed Mr. Spears or his counsel that she will
oppose it," the filing says. "Despite the fact that the requested
sealing is minimal, the Opposition to Mr. Spears’ Motion to Seal fails
to distinguish between Ms. Spears’ privacy rights and those of her minor
children, whom the Opposition does not mention at all."
Jamie makes clear that he has "requested only the
minimum amount of confidential information be sealed, consistent with
the Court rules and Ms. Spears’ constitutional rights to privacy," and
that Ingham "unequivocally supported" the motions to seal in the past.
"Regrettably, the Opposition appears to be a
grandstand aimed at engendering a response from persons who have no
direct interest in the conservatorship at the cost of Ms. Spears’
statutorily protected right to medical privacy and the privacy of her
minor children," Jamie's filing says. "Until this summer, Mr. Ingham
never opposed and in fact, on behalf of his client, has almost always
supported a motion to seal his client’s private and confidential
information. As Ms. Spears’ counsel, he has brought several such motions
himself and has made numerous oral motions to close the courtroom."
Elsewhere in the filing, Jamie responds to the
separate court documents Ingham filed last week saying that Britney
wants a "voluntary" conservatorship in which she can "exercise her right
to nominate a conservator of the estate." (Britney suggested wealth
management and investment advisory firm, Bessemer Trust Company of
California, N.A., to be her conservator and previously said in court
documents that she is "strongly opposed" to having her father return as sole conservator.)
"As the Opposition states, this is a voluntary
conservatorship, and Ms. Spears can apply to the Court at any time she
wishes to terminate the conservatorship of either the person or the
estate, or both," Jamie's filing says. "To date, she has not done so."
Jamie concludes by asking the court to seal the
conservatorship case as it discloses and relates to Britney's
"constitutionally, statutorily and otherwise protected health
information, personal information regarding Ms. Spears and her minor
children, as well as trade secrets and proprietary information, and the
privacy of unrelated third parties."
His filing comes after Britney's lawyer declared
the singer wants to be open about the details of her conservatorship and
those aspects of her which are not in the public's best interest to
know are already sufficiently protected.
"Britney strongly believes it is consistent not
only with her personal best interests but also with good public policy
generally that the decision to appoint a new conservator of her estate
be made in as open and transparent a manner as possible," Ingham's
opposition filing said. "[Jamie's motion] is supposedly being brought by
her father to 'protect' Britney's interests, but she is adamantly
opposed to it."
Additionally, Britney and her attorney argued that
confidential financial information in the case is "already protected"
and "there are no medical issues at all in a conservatorship of the
estate, nor are her children [sons Jayden, 13, and Preston, 14] involved
in any way."
A hearing for Spears' voluntary conservatorship request is scheduled for Nov. 10.
Full Article & Source:
Britney Spears' Father Jamie Opposes Her Request to Open Conservatorship Case to the Public
See Also:
Britney Spears
Full Article & Source:
Britney Spears' Father Jamie Opposes Her Request to Open Conservatorship Case to the Public
See Also:
Britney Spears
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