Since Britney Spears spoke out in court on June 23, when she called the conservatorship “abusive” and said she wants it to end, there has been a flurry of filings in the case. These are some of the questions that could be decided by the probate judge, Brenda Penny, on Wednesday. The hearing is set to begin at 4:30 p.m. ET. Will Jamie Spears Be Removed as Conservator? In July, less than two weeks after Mathew S. Rosengart was approved as Ms. Spears’s lawyer, he moved to have James P. Spears, the singer’s father, removed from the conservatorship. In an additional filing last week, Mr. Rosengart wrote: “It is clear that Mr. Spears cannot be permitted to hold a position of control over his daughter for another day,” adding, “Every day Mr. Spears clings to his post is another day of anguish and harm to his daughter.” Ms. Spears’s lawyer has moved to replace her father on a temporary basis with John Zabel, a certified public accountant in California who has worked in Hollywood, “until the conservatorship is completely and inevitably terminated this fall.” Mr. Spears maintained in filings this week that while there is “no adequate basis” for his suspension or removal as conservator of the estate, the court should instead focus on terminating the conservatorship — something that is now “opposed by no one” and should take priority. (His lawyers also argued that Mr. Zabel “does not appear to have the background and experience required to take over a complex, $60 million” estate.) Will the Conservatorship Be Terminated Altogether? At this point, Ms. Spears has not officially filed to end the conservatorship, although her lawyer said last week that she “fully consents” to its termination. In a twist this month, lawyers for Mr. Spears, who had long maintained that the conservatorship was voluntary and necessary, filed to end it, citing the singer’s stated wishes and recent shows of independence: “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.” But experts have said that terminating a conservatorship without a medical evaluation — as Ms. Spears and now her father have asked for — is unlikely, and there is no public record of the judge calling for a psychiatric evaluation recently. In his filing last week, Mr. Rosengart said that in addition to Ms. Spears’s support for terminating the conservatorship, the singer’s personal conservator since 2019, Jodi Montgomery, backed it as well, “subject to proper transition and asset protection.” Will Mr. Spears and Others Be Investigated Further? Following Ms. Spears’s comments in June — in which she said she had been forced to take medication and was unable to remove a birth-control device — her father asked the court to investigate the claims, denying his own culpability and instead calling into question the actions of Ms. Montgomery and others. Mr. Rosengart has since asked for a future hearing on outstanding financial issues involving the conservatorship, calling mismanagement of Ms. Spears’s estate by her father “evident and ongoing.” He said that in August, Mr. Spears had been served a request for discovery and to sit for a sworn deposition, before he filed to end the conservatorship.
Source: Music - nytimes.com
