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      Britney Spears Files to Remove Father Jamie Spears From Conservatorship

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      More than 13 years after a strict legal arrangement gave James P. Spears control of the singer’s affairs, a new lawyer for Ms. Spears asked the court to remove him from the arrangement.More than 13 years after the life and finances of Britney Spears were put under the strict, court-approved control of her father, James P. Spears — and a month after Ms. Spears broke her public silence on the arrangement, calling it abusive and singling him out as its ultimate authority — a new lawyer for the singer has moved to have Mr. Spears removed from the unique conservatorship.The detailed petition to oust the singer’s father from the complex legal setup was filed in Los Angeles probate court on Monday by Mathew S. Rosengart, a former federal prosecutor and high-powered Hollywood lawyer, who has worked with celebrities including Sean Penn, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Steven Spielberg.The move, less than two weeks after Mr. Rosengart was approved as the singer’s lawyer, is framed as a first step in a broader strategy to examine the conservatorship, which the filing calls a “Kafkaesque nightmare” for Ms. Spears.Mr. Rosengart took over as Ms. Spears’s lawyer after Samuel D. Ingham III, the court-appointed lawyer who had represented her for the duration of the arrangement, resigned in light of the singer’s recent comments about her care. In 2008, at the outset of the conservatorship, Ms. Spears had been found to lack the mental capacity to hire her own counsel.In the filing Monday, Mr. Rosengart cited a section of the probate code that gives the court broad discretion to remove a conservator if it “is in the best interests” of the conservatee, and pointed to Ms. Spears’s recent comments in court as evidence that her father’s role was detrimental to her well-being.The filing added that “serious questions abound concerning Mr. Spears’s potential misconduct, including conflicts of interest, conservatorship abuse and the evident dissipation of Ms. Spears’s fortune.”“There might well come a time when the court will be called upon to consider whether the conservatorship should be terminated in its entirety and whether — in addition to stripping his daughter of her dignity, autonomy and certain fundamental liberties — Mr. Spears is also guilty of misfeasance or malfeasance warranting the imposition of surcharges, damages or other legal action against him,” Mr. Rosengart wrote.Lawyers for Mr. Spears did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. He has previously defended his care of, and concern for, his daughter.In an additional filing, Mr. Rosengart requested that a certified public accountant in California, Jason Rubin, be named conservator of Ms. Spears’s estate, which was listed as including cash assets of $2.7 million and noncash assets of more than $57 million.The lawyer noted, since the court had ruled recently that Ms. Spears had the capacity to choose her own lawyer, she “likewise has sufficient capacity to make this nomination.”In his petition to remove Mr. Spears, Mr. Rosengart added: “Any father who genuinely loves his daughter and has her best interests at heart should willingly step aside in favor of the highly respected professional fiduciary nominated here.”The petition was supported by Ms. Spears’s current personal conservator, Jodi Montgomery, as well as her mother, Lynne Spears, who said in the filing that her daughter’s relationship with her father had “dwindled to nothing but fear and hatred” because of his “microscopic control” over her life.At an emotional hearing on June 23, Ms. Spears, 39, said she wished to end the conservatorship, which oversees both her personal care and estate, without having to undergo psychiatric evaluations; she added that she had not known that she could file to end it.But Mr. Rosengart said in his petition on Monday that he was for now focusing on “the most pressing issue facing Ms. Spears: removing Mr. Spears as conservator of the estate.”The next status hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 29.Ms. Spears has long chafed at the conservatorship’s strictures behind the scenes, calling her father and his oversight over her life oppressive and controlling, according to confidential court records recently obtained by The New York Times. Ms. Spears also raised questions over the years about the fitness of her father — who has struggled with alcoholism and faced accusations of physical and verbal abuse — as conservator.“Anything that happened to me had to be approved by my dad, and my dad only,” Ms. Spears said at the hearing, as she described being forced into a mental health facility after a disagreement at a concert rehearsal.“I cried on the phone for an hour and he loved every minute of it,” she added. “The control he had over someone as powerful as me — he loved the control, to hurt his own daughter, one-hundred thousand percent.”At the July 14 hearing where Mr. Rosengart was approved as Ms. Spears’s counsel, she stated, “I’m here to get rid of my dad.” Mr. Rosengart asked for Mr. Spears to resign on the spot; a lawyer for the singer’s father declined.Mr. Spears, 69, has said instituting the conservatorship was necessary to save his daughter’s life and career during a period of concern about her mental health and substance abuse, and that he has acted out of love, working to protect her from exploitation.Since 2008, Mr. Spears has overseen his daughter’s finances, sometimes with a professional co-conservator. He had also largely controlled Ms. Spears’s personal and medical care until a personal conservator, Ms. Montgomery, took over in September 2019 on an ongoing temporary basis.Mr. Spears cited health reasons when he stepped down. But two weeks prior, there had been an alleged physical altercation between Mr. Spears and Ms. Spears’s 13-year-old son. No charges were filed in the incident, but the child’s father, Kevin Federline, was granted a restraining order barring Mr. Spears from seeing the children.Lynne Spears said in the petition to remove Mr. Spears that the incident “understandably destroyed whatever was left of a relationship between” Ms. Spears and her father.She added: “It is clear to me that James P. Spears is incapable of putting my daughter’s interests ahead of his own on both a professional and a personal level and that his being and remaining a conservator of my daughter’s estate is not in the best interests of my daughter.”Conservatorships are typically reserved for people who cannot take care of themselves. Ms. Spears’s case has received scrutiny in recent years because she continued to perform as a pop star — and bring in millions of dollars — while under the arrangement.“I shouldn’t be in a conservatorship if I can work,” Ms. Spears said at the June 23 hearing, while calling for its termination. “It makes no sense. The laws need to change.” She also requested that those behind the conservatorship be investigated for abuse.Lawyers for Mr. Spears have called into question the actions of the others involved in Ms. Spears’s care. In a court filing after Ms. Spears’s remarks, which were broadcast in the courtroom and, as she insisted, to the public, Mr. Spears’s lawyers called for hearings to look into her claims.“Either the allegations will be shown to be true, in which case corrective action must be taken, or they will be shown to be false, in which case the conservatorship can continue its course,” they wrote.Mr. Spears’s lawyers also denied the characterization that he was responsible for the singer’s recent treatment, noting that Ms. Montgomery had been “fully in charge of Ms. Spears’s day-to-day personal care and medical treatment” for nearly two years, despite some of Ms. Spears’s claims predating Ms. Montgomery’s appointment.“Mr. Spears is unable to hear and address his daughter’s concerns directly because he has been cut off from communicating with her,” Mr. Spears’s lawyers wrote last month, adding that he was “concerned about the management and care of his daughter.”Lauriann Wright, a lawyer for Ms. Montgomery, said that Ms. Montgomery had “been a tireless advocate for Britney and for her well-being,” with “one primary goal — to assist and encourage Britney in her path to no longer needing a conservatorship of the person.”Mr. Spears, known as Jamie, currently oversees his daughter’s finances. He temporarily stepped down as a conservator of her person in 2019.Valerie Macon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIn Ms. Spears’s speech to the court last month, she said she had been forced to perform, take medication and remain on birth control.Following her remarks, the singer’s court-appointed lawyer, Bessemer Trust, the wealth-management firm that was set to take over as the co-conservator of Ms. Spears’s estate, requested to withdraw, in addition to Mr. Ingham. Outside of the conservatorship, Ms. Spears’s longtime manager, Larry Rudolph, also resigned, citing her stated intention to potentially retire.Ms. Spears had expressed concerns about her father’s level of control over her for years as part of the court proceedings, which were largely sealed. In 2016, the probate investigator in the case concluded that the conservatorship remained in Ms. Spears’s best interests based on her complex finances, susceptibility to outside influence and “intermittent” drug issues, according to the report.But the investigator’s report recommended over the longer term “a pathway to independence and the eventual termination of the conservatorship.” More

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      Testing Britney Spears: Restoring Rights Can Be Rare and Difficult

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      To get out of conservatorship, the pop star will likely have to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, an uneasy melding of legal standards and mental health criteria.Her voice quaking with anger and despair, the pop star Britney Spears has asked repeatedly in court to be freed from the conservatorship that has controlled her money and personal life for 13 years. What’s more, she asked the judge to sever the arrangement without making her undergo a psychological evaluation.It’s a demand that legal experts say is unlikely to be granted. The mental health assessment is usually the pole star in a constellation of evidence that a judge considers in deciding whether to restore independence.Its underlying purpose is to determine whether the conditions that led to the imposition of the conservatorship have stabilized or been resolved.The evaluation process, which uneasily melds mental health criteria with legal standards, illustrates why the exit from strict oversight is difficult and rare. State laws are often ambiguous. And their application can vary from county to county, judge to judge, case to case.Isn’t Ms. Spears’s artistic and financial success proof she is self-sufficient?Yes and no. A judge looks for what, in law, is called “capacity.” The term generally refers to benchmarks in a person’s functional and cognitive ability as well as their vulnerability to harm or coercion.Under California law, which governs Ms. Spears’s case, a person deemed to have capacity can articulate risks and benefits in making decisions about medical care, wills, marriage and contracts (such as hiring a lawyer), and can feed, clothe and shelter themselves.Annette Swain, a Los Angeles psychologist who does neuropsychological assessments, said that because someone doesn’t always show good judgment, it doesn’t mean they lack capacity. “We all can make bad decisions at many points in our lives,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean that we should have our rights taken away.”Even so, Ms. Spears’s professional and financial successes do not directly speak to whether she has regained “legal mental capacity,” which she was found to lack in 2008, after a series of public breakdowns, breathlessly captured by the media. At that time, a judge ruled that Ms. Spears, who did not appear in court, was so fragile that a conservatorship was warranted.Judges authorize conservatorships usually for one of three broad categories: a severe psychiatric breakdown; a chronic, worsening condition like dementia; or an intellectual or physical disability that critically impairs function.Markers indicating a person has regained capacity appear to set a low bar. But in practice, the bar can be quite high.“‘Restored to capacity’ before the psychotic break? Or the age the person is now? That expression is fraught with importing value judgment,” said Robert Dinerstein, a disability rights law professor at American University.Records detailing grounds for the petition from Ms. Spears’s father, Jamie Spears, to become his daughter’s conservator are sealed. A few factors suggest the judge at the outset regarded the situation as serious. She appointed conservators to oversee Ms. Spears’s personal life as well as finances. She also ruled that Ms. Spears could not hire her own lawyer, though a lawyer the singer consulted at the time said he thought she was capable of that.Earlier this month, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny said Ms. Spears could retain her own counsel.Does “capacity” differ among states?Yes. Some states, like California, detail basic functional abilities. Others do not. Colorado acknowledges modern advances like “appropriate and reasonably available technological assistance.” Illinois looks for “mental deterioration, physical incapacity, mental illness, developmental disability, gambling, idleness, debauchery, excessive use of intoxicants or drugs.”Sally Hurme of the National Guardianship Association noted: “You could be found to be incapacitated in one state but not in another.”Who performs the psychological assessment?Ideally, a forensic psychiatrist or a psychologist with expertise in neuropsychological assessments. But some states just specify “physician.” Psychiatrists tend to place greater weight on diagnoses; psychologists emphasize tests that measure cognitive abilities. Each reviews medical records and interviews family, friends and others.Assessments can extend over several days. They range widely in depth and duration.Eric Freitag, who conducts neuropsychological assessments in the Bay Area, said he prefers interviewing people at home where they are often more at ease, and where he can evaluate the environment. He asks about financial literacy: bill-paying, health insurance, even counting out change.Assessing safety is key. Dr. Freitag will ask what the person would do if a fire broke out. “I’d call my daughter,” one of his subjects replied.Who chooses the evaluator?Ms. Spears has not been able to choose her evaluators in the past because the conservator has the power to make those decisions. However, if she moves to dissolve the conservatorship, she can select the evaluator, to help build her case. If the conservator, her father, opposes her petition and objects to her selection, he could nominate a candidate to perform an additional assessment. Ms. Spears would likely pick up both tabs as costs of the conservatorship.To avoid a bitter battle of experts and the appearance that an assessor hired by either camp would be inherently biased — plus the strain of two evaluations on Ms. Spears — the judge could try to get both sides to agree to an independent, court-appointed doctor.What impact does a mental health diagnosis have on an evaluation?Many states explicitly say that a diagnosis of a severe mental health disorder is not, on its own, evidence that a person should remain in conservatorship.Stuart Zimring, an attorney in Los Angeles County who specializes in elderlaw and special needs trusts, noted that he once represented a physician with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder who was under a conservatorship. The doctor’s rights were eventually restored after he proved he was attending counseling sessions and taking medication.“It was a joyous day when the conservatorship was terminated,” said Mr. Zimring. “He got to practice medicine again, under supervision.”The association between the diagnosis of a severe mental disorder and a determination of incapacity troubles Dr. Swain, the Los Angeles psychologist.“Whatever they ended up diagnosing Britney Spears with, was it of such severity that she did not understand the decisions that she had to make, that she could not provide adequate self-care?” she asked. “Where do you draw that line? It’s a moving target.”Does the judge have to accept an evaluator’s findings?No, but judges usually do.What standard does a probate judge apply to reach a decision?In most states, when a judge approves a conservatorship, which constrains a person’s autonomy, the evidence has to be “clear and convincing,” a rigorous standard just below the standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt.”But when a conservatee wants those rights restored, many experts believe the standard should be more lenient.Some states indeed apply a lower standard to end a conservatorship. In California, a judge can do so by finding it is more likely than not (“preponderance of evidence”) that the conservatee has capacity. But some states say that the evidence to earn a ticket out still has to be “clear and convincing.”Most states do not even set a standard.“There’s an underlying assumption that if you can get the process right, everything would be fine and we wouldn’t be depriving people of rights,” said Jennifer Mathis, deputy legal director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. “Our take is that the process is fundamentally broken and that we shouldn’t be using guardianship in so many cases.”If someone is doing well, isn’t the conservatorship no longer necessary?Yes and no. “Judges are haunted by people they have had in front of them who have been released and disaster happens,” said Victoria Haneman, a trusts and estates law professor at Creighton University. “So they take a conservative approach to freedom.”Describing the Kafkaesque conundrum of conservatorship, Zoe Brennan-Krohn, a disabilities rights lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, said: “If she’s doing great, the system is working and should continue. If she is making choices others disagree with, then she’s unreliable and she needs the system.”Or, as Kristin Booth Glen, a former New York State judge who oversaw such cases and now works to reform the system, put it, “Conservatorship and guardianship are like roach motels: you can check in but you can’t check out.”Can an evaluator recommend a less restrictive approach than a conservatorship?At times. Judge Glen once approved the termination of a guardianship of a young woman originally deemed to have the mental acuity of a 7-year-old. After three years of thoughtful interventions, the woman, since married and raising two children, had become able to participate fully in her life. She relied on a team for “supported decision making,” which Judge Glen called “a less restrictive alternate to the Draconian loss of liberty” of guardianship.A supported decision-making approach has been hailed by the Uniform Law Commission, which drafts model statutes. It has said judges should seek “the least restrictive alternative” to conservatorship.To date, only Washington and Maine have fully adopted the commission’s recommended model. More

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      Britney Spears Can Hire a New Lawyer of Her Choice, Judge Rules

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      The decision came as the singer continues to challenge whether her life should be governed by a conservatorship set up 13 years ago on her behalf.More than 13 years after being deemed mentally unfit to choose her own legal representation, Britney Spears can hire a high-powered Hollywood lawyer, a Los Angeles judge ruled on Wednesday, signaling a new phase in the battle to end the conservatorship that controls the singer’s life.The decision by Judge Brenda Penny came at the first hearing since Ms. Spears, 39, called the conservatorship that she has lived under since 2008 abusive and said that she wanted it to end without her having to undergo additional psychiatric evaluations.Ms. Spears’s emotional speech on June 23 triggered a flurry of court filings in recent weeks as those involved in the conservatorship traded blame for the singer’s unhappiness and professed lack of personal agency. Her longtime court-appointed lawyer, Samuel D. Ingham III, asked to resign, as did a wealth management firm that was set to share control of Ms. Spears’s estate with her father, James P. Spears.On Wednesday, the judge accepted Mr. Ingham’s resignation, along with that of co-counsel he had brought on, allowing Ms. Spears to hire Mathew S. Rosengart, a former federal prosecutor, who has worked with celebrities including Sean Penn and Steven Spielberg.Britney Spears fans gathered on Wednesday to show their support for the pop star ahead of a hearing that would allow her to choose her own legal representation in the fight to end her conservatorship.Axelle/Bauer-Griffin, via FilmMagicMr. Rosengart, who is expected to aggressively pursue a path to end the legal arrangement, attended the hearing in person on behalf of Ms. Spears. When the judge asked Ms. Spears, who appeared remotely by phone, if she wished to retain Mr. Rosengart, the singer said that she did and that they had spoken recently.Lawyers for Mr. Spears did not object to allowing Ms. Spears to choose her new lawyer.The decision was met with cheers outside of the courtroom, where dozens of fans representing the Free Britney movement shared news updates through a pink bullhorn, leading to hugs and tears. Among the crowd was Representative Matt Gaetz, who called for a change to federal laws overseeing conservatorships.After Mr. Rosengart was approved by the judge, Ms. Spears, emotional and at times audibly crying, read a written statement, reiterating her desire to terminate the conservatorship without undergoing an evaluation. She added that she wanted her father removed as conservator and charged with abusing his role.Ms. Spears said that the conservatorship had ruined her life. “I’m here to get rid of my dad,” she said.Mr. Rosengart then asked for Mr. Spears to resign on the spot, but a lawyer for Mr. Spears declined, calling the request inappropriate.Mathew S. Rosengart, a former federal prosecutor, who has worked with celebrities including Sean Penn and Steven Spielberg, will represent Ms. Spears in her conservatorship case.Bethany Mollenkof for The New York TimesOn Wednesday, Judge Penny also accepted the resignation of Bessemer Trust, the investment firm that asked to resign after Ms. Spears’s speech in court, potentially leaving the singer’s estranged father once again in sole control of her roughly $60 million estate.Scrutiny over Ms. Spears’s conservatorship has increased in recent months, culminating in her asking in court last month how she could still be considered unable to care for herself even as she continued to bring in millions of dollars as a pop star. The conservatorship that oversees her personal life and finances was approved by the court in 2008, after Mr. Spears petitioned for legal authority over the singer because of concerns about her mental health and substance abuse.Yet even before her speech in court in June, Ms. Spears had long expressed serious objections to the conservatorship and questioned her father’s fitness as conservator, confidential court documents recently obtained by The New York Times revealed.At the previous hearing, Ms. Spears also raised questions about Mr. Ingham’s advocacy on her behalf, saying that she had been unaware that she could ask to terminate the conservatorship. “I’m sorry for my ignorance, but I honestly didn’t know that,” she said, adding: “My attorney says I can’t — it’s not good, I can’t let the public know anything they did to me.”“He told me I should keep it to myself, really,” Ms. Spears said.It is unknown what private discussions Mr. Ingham and Ms. Spears have had over the years about ending the conservatorship, but Mr. Ingham said last month that he would step aside if asked.Mr. Ingham was initially named as her court-appointed representative while Ms. Spears was hospitalized and found to lack the capacity to hire a lawyer at the outset of the conservatorship.A lawyer for the singer’s mother, Lynne Spears, who is an interested party in the conservatorship, asked the court to allow the singer to choose her own lawyer this month, arguing that Ms. Spears should not be held to a decision made in 2008: “Her capacity is certainly different today.”The decision to allow Ms. Spears to hire her own lawyer was not a foregone conclusion. Since the singer had previously been found unfit to do so, the judge could have appointed her a new lawyer from a court-approved panel or required Ms. Spears to undergo a medical evaluation to prove her capacity to choose one herself.Jodi Montgomery, Ms. Spears’s current personal conservator, had suggested what is known as a guardian ad litem, who would have been responsible for reporting Ms. Spears’s choice to the court, along with any potential concerns about the pick, and then retaining the private counsel if approved. But the judge deemed that step unnecessary.Mr. Spears had also called for an investigation into his daughter’s claims of abuse — including that she was forced to perform and remain on birth control — arguing that he has not been in contact with her and has not overseen her personal care for nearly two years.But Mr. Rosengart, along with a lawyer for Ms. Montgomery, a professional conservator who took over Ms. Spears’s personal care on an ongoing temporary basis in the fall of 2019, did not agree on how best to proceed with an investigation.Lawyers for Ms. Montgomery, citing text messages from Ms. Spears, have said that the singer wishes for Ms. Montgomery to continue in her role for the time being. They added that Ms. Montgomery was currently working on a “comprehensive Care Plan” with Ms. Spears’s medical team that would “offer Ms. Spears a path to ending her Conservatorship of the Person, as she so unequivocally desires.”A representative for Ms. Montgomery said in court on Wednesday that Ms. Spears’s medical team strongly recommended that Mr. Spears not be involved with the conservatorship.Now, attention will turn to Mr. Rosengart’s strategy. Should he file to terminate the conservatorship altogether on behalf of Ms. Spears, someone else involved in the arrangement — most likely Ms. Spears’s father — could object, possibly triggering a trial before the judge makes a final decision.In addition to raising the stakes of the conservatorship fight, the recent developments have led to an increase in legal billings. This week, one set of lawyers for Mr. Spears filed an updated petition seeking approval by the court for more than $1 million in fees for about eight months of work.Under the California conservatorship system, Ms. Spears is responsible for paying the lawyers working on all sides of the arrangement, including those arguing against her wishes.“This system is broken,” Gladstone N. Jones, a lawyer for Lynne Spears, said in court on Wednesday. “This is lawyers gone wild.”The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 29.Samantha Stark contributed reporting from Los Angeles. More

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      What’s Next for Britney Spears and Her Conservatorship Case

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      The judge overseeing the legal arrangement controlling the singer’s life and finances approved the hiring of Mathew S. Rosengart, a former federal prosecutor, as her lawyer on Wednesday.Three weeks after Britney Spears denounced the conservatorship that has long controlled her personal life and finances as abusive in an impassioned courtroom speech, a Los Angeles judge said the singer can hire her own lawyer on Wednesday.Judge Brenda Penny approved Ms. Spears’s choice of Mathew S. Rosengart, a prominent Hollywood lawyer and former federal prosecutor who is expected to take a more aggressive approach and push for the conservatorship to end, according to a person briefed on the matter.At a June 23 hearing, Ms. Spears spoke out for the first time at length about her life under the arrangement, which was put in place in 2008 amid concerns about her mental health and potential substance abuse, and said she wants it to end. Since her remarks to the court, there has been a flurry of court filings by those involved in managing the conservatorship.One of the most pressing questions going into the Wednesday hearing involved Ms. Spears’s legal representation. When the conservatorship was imposed in 2008, a judge declared the singer unfit to hire her own counsel; a court-appointed attorney, Samuel D. Ingham III, has represented her since.In her June 23 speech, Ms. Spears raised questions about whether Mr. Ingham had done enough to educate and support her. In a particularly shocking claim, Ms. Spears said that she did not know that it was possible for her to petition to terminate the conservatorship.After Ms. Spears spoke out last month, Mr. Ingham asked the court to step down. A law firm that Mr. Ingham had recently brought on to assist him, Loeb & Loeb, also submitted a resignation letter. On Wednesday, Judge Penny approved both Mr. Ingham and Loeb & Loeb’s resignations.Here are four questions that remain as the case continues.1. Will the Court Investigate Ms. Spears’s Account?Days after Ms. Spears told the court that she had been abused under her conservatorship — saying that she was forced to take mood-stabilizing drugs and was prevented from removing her birth control device, placing the blame for her treatment on her management team, caretakers and family — her father, James P. Spears, called for an investigation.Mr. Spears has been the key player in the arrangement from the beginning. In her speech, Ms. Spears described him as someone who had approval over everything in her life, saying, “he loved the control.”In court filings, Mr. Spears’s lawyers requested an evidentiary hearing into his daughter’s account, writing, “it is critical that the Court confirm whether or not Ms. Spears’s testimony was accurate in order to determine what corrective actions, if any, need to be taken.”They also attempted to distance Mr. Spears from questions about her well-being, arguing that he was “simply not involved in any decisions related to Ms. Spears’s personal care or medical or reproductive issues” after late 2019, and had been cut off from communicating with her.Lawyers for Jodi Montgomery, a professional conservator who took over Ms. Spears’s personal care from her father on an ongoing temporary basis in 2019, responded forcefully, calling Mr. Spears’s request “procedurally defective” and “wholly improper,” as well as a “thinly veiled attempt to clear his name.”On Wednesday, Mr. Rosengart, along with a lawyer for Ms. Montgomery, did not agree on how best to proceed with an investigation.2. Who Will Be in Charge of Ms. Spears’s Finances?Ms. Spears’s fortune, which is now estimated near $60 million, has been controlled by her father (sometimes alongside a co-conservator) for the entirety of the conservatorship; a wealth management firm, Bessemer Trust, was appointed as a co-conservator last year after Ms. Spears requested that her father be removed from the role.About a week after the June 23 hearing, Bessemer Trust requested to resign, according to court documents, citing Ms. Spears’s criticisms of the arrangement. Once the firm became aware of Ms. Spears’s wish to terminate the conservatorship, the filing said, Bessemer no longer wished to be involved. On Wednesday, Judge Penny approved its resignation.The question is now whether Mr. Spears will be allowed to remain as the sole conservator of Ms. Spears’s estate, despite both a formal request from her lawyer and Ms. Spears’s own emotional plea that he be removed. “I’m here to get rid of my dad,” Ms. Spears said in court on Wednesday.Mr. Rosengart, asked the singer’s father to resign as conservator on the spot, but a lawyer for Mr. Spears declined, calling the request inappropriate.3. Should Ms. Spears’s Conservator Be Granted Security?Since Ms. Spears’s speech, there has been a “marked increase in the number and severity of threatening posts” about Ms. Montgomery on social media, as well as other communications threatening violence or death against her, she said in a court filing.As a result, Ms. Montgomery has asked the court to require Ms. Spears’s estate to pay for her security, if Mr. Spears approves. A court filing on her behalf said that Ms. Montgomery sent the threats to the security company that Mr. Spears used, and it recommended that she retain 24/7 protection.Mr. Spears has objected to that arrangement. In his own court filing, lawyers asserted that Ms. Montgomery’s security services would exceed $50,000 per month for an indefinite period — an expense he called unreasonable. He also argued that such payments would set a standard in which Ms. Spears would need to cover security costs for anyone receiving threats as a result of the high-profile case.“Ms. Montgomery is not the only person involved in this conservatorship who has received threatening communications and/or death threats,” lawyers for Mr. Spears wrote.4. Is a Request to End the Conservatorship on the Way?The legal machinations that have followed the June 23 hearing all lead to the same question: Will Ms. Spears formally appeal to terminate the conservatorship?In court on Wednesday, Ms. Spears reiterated her wish that the conservatorship end without her undergoing additional psychiatric evaluations. Now that she has a new lawyer, it is likely only a matter of time before she submits formal paperwork to terminate the arrangement.After that, it is possible that someone else representing the conservatorship — most likely Ms. Spears’s father — could object to the termination, triggering a trial before the judge makes a final decision.Chris Johnson, a trust and estate lawyer in California who has worked with conservatorships and is not involved in the Spears case, said that judges tend to rely heavily on the opinions of medical experts in considering whether to end a conservatorship and that Ms. Spears would probably have to be evaluated again.“In many cases, it can be harder getting rid of a conservatorship than establishing it in the first place,” Mr. Johnson said. More

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      Prominent Lawyer in Discussions to Represent Britney Spears

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      Mathew Rosengart, a former federal prosecutor, plans to attend a hearing on Wednesday and make the case that the singer should be permitted to hire him for her conservatorship battle.A prominent Hollywood lawyer has had discussions in recent days with Britney Spears about representing her in her conservatorship battle, and he plans to attend a hearing in Los Angeles on Wednesday to begin the process of taking over as her counsel, according to a person briefed on the matter.For the past 13 years, under a strict legal arrangement that curbs many of her rights, Ms. Spears has been represented by a court-appointed lawyer whom she criticized at a hearing last month as she urged the court to let her hire her own counsel.Ms. Spears has told others she wanted to take a far more aggressive legal approach. In recent days she began having discussions with Mathew S. Rosengart, a former federal prosecutor who has represented several celebrities in recent years, about having him and his firm take over and push for an end to the conservatorship, according to the person.The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because Ms. Spears has not retained Mr. Rosengart and a judge will need to sign off on any such arrangement. TMZ first reported that Ms. Spears was interested in having Mr. Rosengart represent her.If allowed by the court, Ms. Spears’s retaining of Mr. Rosengart would signal a drastic change in the handling of the case. Confidential court documents recently obtained by The New York Times revealed that Ms. Spears had expressed strong objections to the conservatorship over several years and questioned her father’s fitness as conservator. Mr. Rosengart would be expected to aggressively pursue a path to ending the arrangement..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-uf1ume{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;}.css-wxi1cx{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}The feud has escalated in recent months as scrutiny of the unusual conservatorship has intensified and Ms. Spears has publicly questioned its legitimacy. The guardianship was instituted in 2008, when concerns about her mental health and potential substance abuse led her father, James P. Spears, to petition for legal authority over his daughter. Since her June 23 statement to the court, several pillars of the conservatorship have fallen: Bessemer Trust, the wealth-management firm that was set to take over as the co-conservator of her estate, requested to withdraw; Ms. Spears’s longtime manager, Larry Rudolph, resigned; and Samuel D. Ingham III, the lawyer appointed by the court in 2008 to represent her when she was deemed unfit to hire her own counsel, asked the court if he could step down.Mr. Ingham said in a court filing that he would serve until the court had appointed new counsel for Ms. Spears, but it is not clear how a new lawyer would be selected or whether Judge Brenda Penny, who is overseeing the case, would allow Ms. Spears to have a say in the matter.Mr. Rosengart, 58, a partner at the law firm Greenberg Traurig, once served as a law clerk for the former New Hampshire state judge David Souter, shortly before he was nominated to the Supreme Court. Mr. Rosengart worked at the Justice Department as an assistant United States Attorney in the 1990s.After leaving the Justice Department, he worked as a white-collar defense attorney and civil litigator. In recent years, he has represented several high profile Hollywood personalities, including Sean Penn, Steven Spielberg and Kenneth Lonergan.In Mr. Penn’s case, Mr. Rosengart helped him win a defamation case against a director who made claims about Mr. Penn’s past behavior. The lawyer produced an affidavit from Madonna, the actor’s ex-wife, that refuted the director’s assertions. Mr. Penn said in a statement on Sunday that Mr. Rosengart “is a tough as nails streetfighter with a big brain and bigger principles.”At a hearing on June 23, Ms. Spears vehemently criticized the conservatorship, claiming she had been forced to perform, take debilitating medication and remain on birth control.She also raised questions about Mr. Ingham’s advocacy on her behalf. She said in court that she had been unaware of how to terminate the arrangement.“I didn’t know I could petition the conservatorship to be ended,” Ms. Spears, 39, said in court. “I’m sorry for my ignorance, but I honestly didn’t know that.” She added, “My attorney says I can’t — it’s not good, I can’t let the public know anything they did to me.”“He told me I should keep it to myself, really,” the singer said.It is unknown what private discussions Mr. Ingham and Ms. Spears have had about whether or how she could ask to end the conservatorship. Last year, Mr. Ingham began seeking substantial changes to the setup on behalf of Ms. Spears, including attempts to strip power from her father, who remains in control of the singer’s nearly $60 million fortune.Mr. Ingham’s request to withdraw also included the resignation letter of the law firm Loeb & Loeb, which Mr. Ingham had brought on last year to assist him in preparation for litigation.A lawyer for Lynne Spears, Ms. Spears’s mother and an interested party in the conservatorship, has asked the court to allow Ms. Spears to hire her own private legal counsel.Ms. Spears’s personal conservator, Jodi Montgomery, recently filed an urgent request for the court to appoint a guardian ad litem who would be assigned solely to help Ms. Spears choose her own lawyer. The filing stated that Ms. Spears had been “repeatedly and consistently” asking for Ms. Montgomery’s assistance in finding a new lawyer and that Ms. Spears deserved to be represented by a top-tier firm. More

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      Company Set to Manage Britney Spears’s Estate Asks to Withdraw

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      Bessemer Trust, a professional wealth management firm, said in its filing that it had not known of Ms. Spears’s objection to the conservatorship that governs her life.The wealth management firm that was set to take over as the co-conservator of Britney Spears’s estate, alongside her father, has requested to resign from the arrangement, according to a document filed in court on Thursday, throwing her conservatorship into greater turmoil.Bessemer Trust, a professional wealth management firm that manages more than $100 billion in assets, said in a court filing that it wanted to resign “due to changed circumstances,” citing Ms. Spears’s recent public criticisms of the conservatorship.The firm said in its filing that it had been told that Ms. Spears’s conservatorship was voluntary and that she had consented to the company acting as co-conservator. But in a court hearing on June 23, Ms. Spears excoriated the conservatorship and demanded that it end.“As a result of the conservatee’s testimony at the June 23 hearing, however, Petitioner has become aware that the Conservatee objects to the continuance of her Conservatorship and desires to terminate the conservatorship,” the firm said in the court filing. “Petitioner has heard the Conservatee and respects her wishes.”If the judge approves Bessemer’s request to resign, it is unclear if Ms. Spears’s father will serve as the sole conservator of the singer’s nearly $60 million estate.For 13 years, Ms. Spears has lived under a system that restricts her control over her life and finances. She called the conservatorship “abusive” last week at the hearing, and pleaded with the court to let her out of the arrangement without a medical evaluation.Her court-appointed lawyer, Samuel D. Ingham III, has not yet filed a formal request to terminate the conservatorship with the court.Ms. Spears’s father and others involved in the conservatorship have defended the arrangement and said that it rescued her from a low point, and that she could move to end it whenever she wanted. But confidential court records obtained by The New York Times showed how Ms. Spears, 39, has objected to the conservatorship for years.In a quirk of the conservatorship system, Ms. Spears has to pay for lawyers on both sides, including those arguing against her wishes in court.Last fall, Mr. Ingham had requested that the singer’s father, James P. Spears, be suspended as conservator of the estate immediately, claiming Ms. Spears was “afraid of her father,” but the judge declined that request.Bessemer Trust was approved by the court at that time to be added as co-conservator of the estate. But the firm said in its court filing on Thursday that it was still “not currently authorized to act” and had not taken any action as co-conservator or received any of the assets of Ms. Spears’s estate, nor had it taken any fees.Mr. Spears was appointed co-conservator of Ms. Spears’s estate in early 2008, alongside a lawyer, Andrew Wallet. Mr. Wallet, who in a 2018 court filing described the conservatorship as a “hybrid business model,” resigned in 2019.The high-profile court battle over Ms. Spears’s case has put heightened public attention on the conservatorship, or guardianship, system. On Thursday, Time reported that Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bob Casey were calling for greater federal scrutiny of the system. More

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      Britney Spears’s Father Calls for Inquiry Into Singer’s Control Claims

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      A week after the singer’s impassioned courtroom speech, the man who has long overseen her conservatorship called for an investigation into her claims that she had been abused under it.James P. Spears, the father of Britney Spears and the man who has long had a leading role in overseeing his daughter’s affairs, on Tuesday called for an investigation into the singer’s claims last week that she had been abused under her conservatorship, including being made to perform and take medication against her will.The court filings on behalf of Mr. Spears followed the singer’s first detailed public statement in 13 years about the complex legal arrangement that oversees her personal care and finances, in which she called for an end to the conservatorship without having to undergo a mental evaluation.In her remarks at the hearing on June 23, which were broadcast in the courtroom and streamed online, Ms. Spears placed the blame for how she said she had been treated on her management team, caretakers and family, mentioning her father specifically.Now, lawyers for Mr. Spears have requested an evidentiary hearing and called into question the actions of both Ms. Spears’s current personal conservator and court-appointed lawyer, writing that “it is critical that the Court confirm whether or not Ms. Spears’s testimony was accurate in order to determine what corrective actions, if any, need to be taken.”The filings, made late Tuesday in Los Angeles and obtained by The New York Times, continued: “It is also imperative for the proper functioning of conservatorship proceedings before this Court that all parties be provided a full and fair opportunity to respond to allegations and claims asserted against them.”James P. Spears, known as Jamie, currently oversees his daughter’s finances. He temporarily stepped down as a conservator of her person in 2019.Valerie Macon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe two-pronged conservatorship managing Ms. Spears’s personal life and estate was first approved by a Los Angeles probate court in 2008, when Ms. Spears’s father filed to gain control of the singer’s business and well-being amid concerns about her mental health and potential substance abuse. The arrangement is typically reserved for people who cannot care for themselves, though Ms. Spears went on to work and perform widely in the years that followed.Mr. Spears currently oversees the singer’s finances, alongside a corporate fiduciary that Ms. Spears requested join the arrangement last year. Her personal conservator, Jodi Montgomery, took over on an ongoing temporary basis from her father in September 2019, after Mr. Spears stepped down, citing health problems.But Ms. Spears’s recent statement, along with confidential court records obtained by The New York Times, revealed that in private, Ms. Spears had consistently pushed to end the conservatorship, calling it “too, too much,” according to a court investigator’s report in 2016, and adding that she was “sick of being taken advantage of.”In court last week, Ms. Spears called the setup abusive, comparing it to sex trafficking and describing being forced to tour, undergo psychiatric evaluations and take medication in 2019, before her father relinquished his role as her personal conservator.She also said she could not remove her birth control device despite wanting to get married and have more children. Ms. Spears singled out her father as “the one who approved all of it.”In a second filing on Tuesday, lawyers for Mr. Spears denied the characterization that he was in command, arguing that Ms. Montgomery had been “fully in charge of Ms. Spears’s day-to-day personal care and medical treatment” since September 2019, despite some of Ms. Spears’s claims predating Ms. Montgomery’s appointment.“Mr. Spears is simply not involved in any decisions related to Ms. Spears’s personal care or medical or reproductive issues,” his lawyers wrote. “Mr. Spears is unable to hear and address his daughter’s concerns directly because he has been cut off from communicating with her.”They added that Mr. Spears had no intention of returning as his daughter’s personal conservator, but said he was “concerned about the management and care of his daughter.”Lauriann Wright, a lawyer for Ms. Montgomery, said in a statement on Wednesday that as personal conservator, Ms. Montgomery had “been a tireless advocate for Britney and for her well-being,” with “one primary goal — to assist and encourage Britney in her path to no longer needing a conservatorship of the person.”Ms. Wright pointed to Ms. Montgomery’s role as a “a neutral decision-maker when there are complex family dynamics” and said Ms. Spears’s “choice to marry and to start a family have never been impacted by the conservatorship while Ms. Montgomery has been conservator of the person.”She added that Ms. Montgomery looked forward to “setting forth a path for termination of the conservatorship.”Lawyers for Mr. Spears also raised concerns about the role of Ms. Spears’s court-appointed lawyer, Samuel D. Ingham III, who was assigned to the case in 2008, when the singer was deemed incapable of choosing her own representation.In the documents, Mr. Spears’s lawyers questioned whether an earlier move to make Ms. Montgomery’s role permanent reflected the singer’s wishes, or if she was aware of it at all, noting that “Ms. Spears neither signed nor verified” the petition to appoint her personal conservator, which was instead signed by Mr. Ingham.They cited Mr. Ingham’s previous claim that Ms. Spears had been found in 2014 to lack the capacity to consent to medical treatment, and noted, “there was no such finding, and there is no such order.” This, too, requires investigation at a subsequent hearing, the lawyers wrote.In calling for an investigation, Mr. Spears’s lawyers said: “Either the allegations will be shown to be true, in which case corrective action must be taken, or they will be shown to be false, in which case the conservatorship can continue its course. It is not acceptable for Conservators or the Court to do nothing in response to Ms. Spears’ testimony.”Earlier, Ms. Spears had expressed concerns about her father’s level of control over her, according to the investigator’s report from 2016. She cited her inability to make friends or date without her father’s approval; the limits of her $2,000 per week allowance, despite her success as a performer; and the fear and “very harsh” consequences that she said came with any infractions under the conservatorship, according to the investigator’s account.At the time, the probate investigator in the case concluded that the conservatorship remained in Ms. Spears’s best interests based on her complex finances, susceptibility to outside influence and “intermittent” drug issues, according to the report. But it also called for “a pathway to independence and the eventual termination of the conservatorship.”Ms. Spears said in court last week that she had been unaware that she could file to end the conservatorship. “I’m sorry for my ignorance, but I honestly didn’t know that,” she said. More

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      Britney Spears Takes On Her Conservatorship

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      Britney Spears has been living under a conservatorship of her person and her estate since 2008, and in recent years, that arrangement has come under increased scrutiny. Last week, the singer spoke out publicly in a court hearing about her frustrations with the arrangement in a passionate speech that explained how she felt living under other people’s control.“I’ve been in shock. I am traumatized,” she said. “You know, fake it till you make it. But now I’m telling you the truth, OK? I’m not happy. I can’t sleep. I’m so angry it’s insane. And I’m depressed. I cry every day.”The revelations constituted Spears’s most detailed public statements about the terms under which she lives and works, and in the days since, her father, James P. Spears, — who has largely been in control of the arrangement from the start — filed legal documents calling for an investigation into her claims.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about the status of Spears’s conservatorship, the ways it has intersected with her creative work, and the possibilities for her personal and professional future.Guests:Joe Coscarelli, The New York Times’s pop music reporterLiz Day, senior story editor of “Framing Britney Spears”Samantha Stark, director of “Framing Britney Spears” More