Conservatorship: Britney Spears Files Petition To Remove Dad, Jamie Spears As Official Guardian

Britney Spears has officially filed a petition to remove her father, Jamie Spears as conservator of her estate with a proposed replacement as she continues to fight to end the controversial conservatorship.

Under U.S. law, conservatorship is the appointment of a guardian or a protector by a judge to manage the financial affairs and/or daily life of another person due to old age or physical or mental limitations. A person under conservatorship is a “conservatee“, a term that can refer to an adult.

Spears’ legal team on Monday filed a petition to remove her father as the conservator of her estate, marking another step in the legal battle over control of her life and finances.

In the filings, which ask the court to appoint a neutral professional as the new conservator, Britney Spears’ team argues that the current situation is “traumatizing, insane, and depressing” for the pop star.

The singer’s team are asking that Jamie be replaced with a professional fiduciary, and does not aim to end the conservatorship as a whole — though the documents note that Britney Spears may ask to end the conservatorship at a later date.

According to documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday and obtained by USA TODAY, Spears, through her legal team led by attorney Mathew Rosengart, asks to replace her father as conservator with Jason Rubin, a certified public accountant based in Woodland Hills, California.

The 39-year-old American singer has been under the conservatorship since 2008, when concerns over her mental health prompted her father to petition the court for legal authority over his daughter’s life. Licensed care manager Jodi Montgomery currently controls her personal affairs.

Britney has worked regularly during the conservatorship, putting out several albums, headlining a successful Las Vegas residency, and serving as a judge on The X Factor.

In 2019, the conservatorship started garnering more scrutiny after Spears abruptly canceled her second Vegas residency (Spears later claimed in court that she was forced into a psychiatric facility after arguing about creative decisions in rehearsal).

It was at this point that #FreeBritney movement began to grow online, and ever since, Spears fans and supporters have been a constant presence outside her court hearings.

Meanwhile, Britney Spears’ legal team alleges in the filing that Jamie Spears has improperly used the singer’s money to enrich himself, including by taking a percentage of her performance revenue that amounts to more than $2 million.

The filing also repeats allegations from Britney Spears‘ explosive June 23 testimony that she was drugged after refusing to perform.

The filing also includes financial details regarding Spears’ estate, including the value of her cash and non-cash assets. The combined value of Spears’ assets listed in the document totals over $57 million, with over $2.7 million in cash assets and over $54.5 million in non-cash assets.

The petition partly reads;

For more than thirteen years, (Spears) has endured a conservatorship that, certainly as it concerns (Jamie) has grown increasingly toxic and is simply no longer tenable.

Ms. Spears has perceived and described the status quo as traumatizing, insane, and depressing. Regardless of whether Mr. Spears contests his daughter’s testimony and perception of the status quo, Ms. Spears’s testimony is genuine and makes clear that Mr. Spears’s continued presence as conservator is not in her best interests.

The filing added;

Mr. Spears’s attorney has publicly stated that Mr. Spears loves his daughter and wants the best for her. Taking that at face value, and given all the foregoing, this Petition should not even be necessary, because Mr. Spears should resign voluntarily.

This filing is the first to come from Britney Spears‘ new attorney, who was hired after a judge allowed her to choose her own lawyer in mid-July.

Judge Brenda Penny granted Spears‘ request to hire Rosengart, a former federal prosecutor-turned-skilled litigator, to be her lawyer amid her ongoing effort to end her 13-year conservatorship, under which she has little control over her finances or major life decisions.

Spears, who dialed into the hearing, spoke for about 15 minutes and became emotional, saying she wants an “investigation” of her conservatorship.

She reiterated that she wants her father out as a co-conservator, and that she refuses to undergo more medical assessments.

Spears also said she wants Jodi Montgomery, the state-appointed conservator of her person, to continue in that role.

During her testimony, Spears also claimed the conservatorship gave her little control over her own body: She claimed she was prescribed medication such as Lithium against her will, and told she was not allowed to get married, have another child, or have her own Intrauterine Device (IUD) used for birth control removed.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for September 29.