Britney Spears files to remove her father from her conservatorship

Britney Spears' new attorney has filed to have her father removed from her conservatorship.

Mathew Rosengart filed the petition in a Los Angeles court on July 26th, to remove Jamie Spears as the conservator of his daughter's estate.

According to The New York Times,  Rosengart’s filing cites a section of the probate code which gives the court the power to remove a conservator if it “is in the best interests” of the conservatee.

The filing also stated 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."

Additional filings request that a certified public accountant from California, Jason Rubin, be appointed as conservator of Britney's estate, which includes cash assets of €2.4 million ($2.7 million) and non-cash assets of more than £48 million ($57 million).

Rosengart also said that "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."

Lawyers for Jamie Spears have denied all allegations of mistreatment of Britney. On June 23rd, in her first public testimony on her conservatorship in the 13 years she has been under it, she detailed how she had been forced to take lithium, forbidden from removing her IUD to have more children, get married or even drive herself.

A petition filed in November last year by Britney's previous lawyer, Samuel Ingham III, to remove Jamie as conservator was denied on July 1st, however this decision did not account for Britney's testimony the previous week.

Ingham resigned in the wake of the explosive testimony on July 7th, and was replaced by Rosengart after Britney was deemed able enough to appoint her own counsel. It had been ruled at the beginning of her conservatorship in 2008 that she was not mentally competent to do so.

Earlier this month Jamie's lawyers said that he would not step down after Rosengart called on him in court to voluntarily resign from the conservatorship, and questioned the accuracy of Britney’s claims of abuse.

Since 2019, Britney has been fighting to have her father removed from her conservatorship. During her testimony she also requested that the legal arrangement be simply ended, without making her undergo any evaluation.

Her case has been drawing attention to the issue of conservatorships and similar guardianship arrangements the world over, and has prompted two members of US Congress, Republican Nancy Mace and Democrat Charlie Crist, to propose a bill to reform the system.

In his petition on Monday, Rosengart that he was for now focusing on “the most pressing issue facing Ms. Spears: removing Mr. Spears as conservator of the estate.”

Many celebrities and public figures have come out in support of Britney's struggle over her conservatorship, including Christina Aguilera, ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, Paris Hilton and Billie Eilish.

The latest to do so is Boris Johnson’s former lead adviser, Dominic Cummings, who posted on Twitter yesterday using the #FreeBritney hashtag.

Now @britneyspears can hire own lawyers: please Britney team write/tweet to all in Congress, all @POTUS staff, all @GavinNewsom staff, judges’ staff challenging whether *they personally* support the *shocking* conservatorship laws. They won't & the tide will #FreeBritney RETWEET!

— Dominic Cummings (@Dominic2306) July 26, 2021

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