Britney Spears Officially Files Petition to Remove Dad Jamie as Conservator, Requests Jason Rubin

By Jeff Nelson and Tomás Mier

 

Britney Spears has officially taken steps to oust her father from her conservatorship.

On Monday, the pop star's lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, filed a petition in court to remove her father Jamie Spears as her financial conservator and replace him with Jason Rubin, a certified public accountant at Certified Strategies Inc, to manage her estate, which is worth $58 million, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.

According to his employer's website, Rubin has practiced as a forensic accountant since 1993 and has testified as an expert witness in hundreds of cases.

"Ms. Spears respectfully submits that the Court should appoint her nominee; in that, it is an objectively intelligent preference to nominate a highly qualified, professional fiduciary in this circumstance," the documents read. "Moreover, Ms. Spears respectfully submits that, given the Court's recognition at the July 14, 2021, hearing that Ms. Spears has sufficient capacity to choose her own legal counsel, she likewise has sufficient capacity to make this nomination."

Spears' next court date is set for Dec. 13.

Britney Spears; Jamie Spears

| Credit: Getty; Shutterstock

This move is the latest in Britney's ongoing 13-year conservatorship saga. After a public breakdown, Britney was placed under a conservatorship in 2008, and a judge then appointed Jamie as both the conservator of her person and the conservator of her estate.

In 2019, Jamie stepped down as the conservator of her person after an alleged physical altercation with Britney and ex-husband Kevin Federline's son Sean Preston, 15. (The exes are also parents to son Jayden James, 14.) At the time, Jodi Montgomery, a care manager, took over as Britney's conservator of her person.

Jamie and Britney Spears

| Credit: Chris Farina/Corbis/Getty

RELATED: Britney Spears Conservatorship Case: Read Her Full Statement 

On June 23, Britney, 39, delivered emotional testimony in court, telling the judge why she believed Jamie should no longer be the conservator of her estate — and revealing for the first time that she wanted the conservatorship to end.

"I've lied and told the whole world I'm okay and I'm happy. It's a lie. I've been in denial. I've been in shock. I am traumatized. Fake it 'til you make it, but now I'm telling you the truth, okay? I'm not happy. I can't sleep. I'm depressed. I cry every day," Britney said in court.

During the same hearing, Jamie's attorney Vivian Lee Thoreen addressed the court to share a statement from her client, saying, "[Jamie] is sorry to see his daughter in so much pain. [He] loves his daughter and misses her very much."

Following Britney's bombshell testimony, several players involved in the conservatorship resigned, including her longtime court-appointed attorney Sam Ingham III.

At a July 14 hearing, Britney scored a major win in her conservatorship case when the judge allowed her to hire her own attorney, former federal prosecutor Rosengart. In the same hearing, Britney — who called into the hearing over the phone — accused Jamie of abuse.

Britney Spears and Sam Asghari; Jamie Spears

| Credit: Vivien Killilea/Getty; Alex Berliner/BEI/Shutterstock

RELATED: Britney Spears' Conservator Accuses Jamie Spears of Using Over $2M of Singer's Funds to Defend Himself

"I would like to charge my father with conservatorship abuse," she reportedly said in a tearful testimony. "I want to press charges against my father today. I want an investigation into my dad."

At the hearing, Britney also called her conservatorship "f----ing cruelty" and alleged that she was living with severe limitations, including not being able to drink coffee, saying, "If this is not abuse, I don't know what is," according to CNN. (A lawyer for Jamie did not respond to PEOPLE's request for comment at the time.)

One day ahead of Britney's June hearing, The New York Times published a report citing sealed court documents and transcripts from 2016 between Britney and a probate investigator

"She articulated she feels the conservatorship has become an oppressive and controlling tool against her," a court investigator wrote in 2016, adding that Spears reportedly believed the legal system had "too much control."

"She is 'sick of being taken advantage of' and she said she is the one working and earning her money but everyone around her is on her payroll," the investigator added then.

Credit: Kevin Mazur/BCU18/Getty

 

Spears also said that her father was "obsessed" with her and wanted to control everything about her life, according to theTimes. The singer alleged she was unable to make friends, was limited to a $2,000 weekly allowance and was not allowed to spend her own money to make cosmetic changes to her home without her father's permission, the Times reported. (That same year, she met her boyfriend Sam Asghari on the set of her "Slumber Party" music video.)

Britney's 2016 sentiments echo what her former lawyer told a judge during a November 2020 court hearing that she was "afraid of her father" when the judge declined Britney's request to make Montgomery her permanent conservator.

"She will not perform again if her father is in charge of her career," he said at the time. (Thoreen, one of Jamie's attorneys, refuted the claim as hearsay.)

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Britney Spears Officially Files Petition to Remove Dad Jamie as Conservator, Requests Jason Rubin