LOS ANGELES (CN) — Weeks after delivering explosive testimony against her court-appointed conservatorship, Britney Spears received support from her mother who says it’s time for her daughter to be able to choose her own attorney.
During startling 25-minute testimony in a Los Angeles County Superior courtroom on June 23, pop icon Britney Spears revealed that she has had little control over her personal and professional decisions in the last decade. Britney Spears, 39, said she also received little information about her legal rights, claiming that no one told her she could request her own attorney.
On Tuesday, Britney Spears’ mother, Lynne Spears, asked Judge Brenda Penny to allow her daughter to be able to hire her own attorney. She also asked the court to not hold Britney Spears to the standards that landed her in the conservatorship over 13 years ago.
“Her capacity is certainly different today than it was in 2008, and Conservatee should no longer be held to the 2008 standard, whereby she was found to ‘not have the capacity to retain counsel,’” said Lynne Spears.
In January 2008, Spears was committed to a psychiatric facility in LA after a court hearing where her visitation rights with her children were suspended. During this time, the court placed her under a conservatorship overseen by her father, Jamie Spears and an attorney. A perpetual magnet for paparazzi, Britney Spears’ public meltdown was captured and broadcast in the years leading up to an LA County judge's determination that she was deemed unfit to make her own decisions.
Last month, Britney Spears spoke publicly for the first time since being placed under the conservatorship.
“I’m not happy. I can’t sleep, I’m so angry it’s insane. I cry every day,” Spears said.
Spears pleaded with Penny to modify or remove the conservatorship.
“Basically, this conservatorship is doing me way more harm than good. I deserve to have a life. I have worked my whole life,” Spears told Penny, revealing that she may want to retire from her music career and have another child.
Lynne Spears said the court should allow her daughter to own her own money as opposed to a reported allowance managed by her conservators. Lynne asked the court to remove the conservator on Britney’s estate and terminate the conservatorship without her being placed under another evaluation.
At the June 23 hearing, Britney Spears said, “I don’t think I owe anyone to be evaluated. I’ve done more than enough. I don’t feel like I should even be in a room with anyone to offend me by trying to question my capacity of intelligence, whether I need to be in this stupid conservatorship or not.”
Other requests made by her mother included allowing Britney Spears to be able to ride in her boyfriend’s car, to be able to speak out publicly about her situation, be allowed to marry, to pick her own attorney, meet with a therapist once a week at her home, see her friends, have an IUD removed from her body and have a baby.
“It is beyond dispute that this is a unique conservatorship,” Lynne Spears said in her filing.
In the original petition to the court, Britney Spears' family listed a medical center as her given address while she was being held in a psychiatric evaluation.
“That was over thirteen years ago,” Lynne Spears said. “Now, and for the past many years, Conservatee is able to care for her person and in fact has, inside of the parameters of this conservatorship, earned literally hundreds of millions of dollars as an international celebrity.”
A similar request was made by Britney Spears’ personal conservator, Jodi Montgomery. In her separate petition to the court, Montgomery said that Britney Spears has repeatedly asked her for help to find a personal attorney.
Montgomery included screenshots from a text message exchange with Britney Spears where she says that she wants to help her, but she “needs to stay in her lane” as the personal conservator.
“Your dad has excellent attorneys, and you should too,” Montgomery wrote.
“I know but I want (redacted),” Spears wrote back in a redacted text message. “AND a get a new lawyer I can do BOTH.”
“Your new lawyer will do that,” Montgomery wrote.
She added, “You must have your own representation, and we will clear the way in court.”
Spears responded, “It’s not cool though ur not givin me names Jody… I don’t have representation though.”
Montgomery said that Samuel Ingham is still Spears’ court-appointed attorney.
In a separate filing, Montgomery asked for increased security, because she’s seen a “marked increase” in threats through social media and text messages, phone calls and emails.
After the June 23 hearing, both Ingham and Bessemer Trust, the financial institution appointed as co-conservator of Britney Spears’ estate, offered their resignations from the conservatorship. The court will consider those motions and many more at a July 14 hearing.
Follow Nathan Solis on Twitter.
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
Baseball team discrimination April 18, 2024 -
-
Guns in the courthouse April 18, 2024 -
