Britney Spears Now Able To Hire Her Own Lawyer In Case To End Conservatorship
Britney Spears received an amazing victory in her battle to end the conservatorship that she’s been in for 13 years now. The pop star is now able to hire her own lawyer to help end the conservatorship which Spears herself has called “abusive.”
The conservatorship currently gives Britney’s father, Jamie Spears, full control of her business, estate, finances, social outings, and personal affairs. He is currently the sole individual in charge of her $60 million estate.
“You’re allowing my dad to ruin my life. I have to get rid of my dad and charge him with conservatorship abuse.”
Spears spoke in front of the court via phone call in an emotional testimony filled with understandable rage and sadness. She claimed to have always been “extremely scared of [her] dad.”
“I’m fed up with the multiple psychological evaluations and want the conservatorship brought to an end without another one. I’m not a perfect person, but my team’s goal is to make me feel like I’m crazy.”
This marks the second time Spears has been able to address the courts herself since the conservatorship began. Last month she made headlines after calling the legal arrangement abusive and stupid in a passionate 20-minute testimonial.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny approved of former federal Mathew Rosengart to be Spears’s lawyer. Rosengart spoke to the media after this major announcement, claiming that he would be filing a petition to end the conservatorship and remove Jamie Spears as the conservator “as soon as possible.”
“We will be filing a petition as soon as possible to move Mr Spears, subject to our formal retention. As I said in open court, a very fair question is: Why is Mr Spears not voluntarily stepping down? He does not belong in this conservatorship any more. And we believe he should voluntarily step down immediately,” Rosengart claimed.
This has been a major win for Spear’s fans all around the world who have been advocating for her freedom from the conservatorship for years now.
“This is not just about Britney alone. This is about every other person who is trapped in one of these, what I would call a prison,” said 34-year-old Patrick Thomas, head of the recently formed Free Britney America group, whose group is pushing for a congressional hearing and federal oversight of conservatorships.
As Thomas mentioned, Britney’s current situation has opened up a much larger conversation about abusive conservatorships in general, and the unfair control they give certain individuals.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.