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| Randee-St. Nicolas/Courtesy of RCA Records |
Britney Spears won a minor victory Wednesday in her conservatorship battle against her father, Jamie Spears: The singer will be allowed to expand her legal team, after a petition request was granted.
Britney, 38, is seeking to have Jamie removed from her conservatorship, which has been in effect for 12 years. She was not present for the latest hearing, although though her mother, Lynne Spears, Jamie and her attorney, Samuel Ingham were.
Jamie had opposed Britney’s petition, citing the cost of adding more lawyers.
Jamie Spears has been Britney’s co-conservator since 2008 when she suffered a very public breakdown. He became sole conservator in 2019 after attorney Andrew Wallet resigned from his co-conservatorship. Jamie Spears is recovering from treatment of a ruptured colon, after which Spears postponed her lucrative Las Vegas residency and later checked herself into a health facility for a month-long stay.
The #FreeBritney movement has long argued that the singer is essentially being held captive by the conservatorship, and for years fans have gathered outside the court hearings and cited what they claim are secret calls for help in the singer’s social media posts.
However, in a filing in August, Spears’ attorney said the conservatorship is “voluntary,” and that the singer is “strongly opposed” to her father remaining the sole conservator.
“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 wrote.
Spears is petitioning that her temporary conservator, Jodi Montgomery, take on the role permanently. Furthermore, the document states that Britney Spears opposes her father’s continued control over her estate and would like to regain oversight of her finances. As the filing reads: “Britney … strongly prefers to have a qualified corporate fiduciary appointed to serve in this role.”
The court has granted Jamie Spears to be paid around $130,000
annually by his daughter’s estate for his role as conservator, and
according to court documents obtained by ET, the largest expense of
Britney’s estate in 2018 was her legal and conservator fees, which, in
total, equaled over $1.1 million for that year.
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