Attorney for Britney Spears requests earlier court date to remove her father as co-conservator

By CNN Newsource

Published August 5, 2021 1:30 PM

By Chloe Melas, CNN

An attorney for Britney Spears has filed a petition requesting the judge in her conservatorship case move up a hearing to determine immediately whether Jamie Spears will be removed as the co-conservator of his daughter’s estate, according to court documents obtained by CNN on Thursday.

The next hearing is currently set for September 29 but the singer’s attorney, Mathew Rosengart, has requested Judge Brenda Penny hold the hearing this month instead.

“Every day that passes is another day of avoidable harm and prejudice to Ms. Spears and the Estate,” the petition states. “Ms. Spears’s emotional health and well-being must be, and are, the paramount concern. Further, all interested parties forcefully agree that Mr. Spears’s continued presence as Conservator of the Estate is contrary to Ms. Spears’s best interests, health, and well-being, and that his prompt removal — or, at the very least, his immediate suspension — is ‘critical’ at this juncture.”

A representative for Jamie Spears could not immediately be reached for comment.

Rosengart has previously filed a petition to remove the elder Spears from his role as co-conservator and replace him with Jason Rubin, a CPA at Certified Strategies Inc. in Woodland Hills, California.

Spears has overseen his daughter’s estate for the duration of her 13-year conservatorship, which the singer has called “abusive.” Speaking to the court last month, the singer said she wanted to press charges against her father for “conservatorship abuse” and called the arrangement “f—ing cruelty.”

Earlier this year, through his attorney Vivian Lee Thoreen, Jamie Spears said he believes every decision he has made as conservator has been in his daughter’s best interest.

Britney Spears’ lawyer calls conservatorship “Kafkaesque nightmare”

Rosengart has stated that the situation has become “toxic” between the singer and her father and that he was “guilty of misfeasance or malfeasance.”

“For more than thirteen years, Petitioner Britney Jean Spears has endured a conservatorship that, certainly as it concerns James P. Spears, has grown increasingly toxic and is simply no longer tenable,” Rosengart wrote in his request to remove Spears as co-conservator. “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.”

Rosengart described the arrangement as a “Kafkaesque nightmare” for his client in which her father has paid himself $16,000 per month from Britney Spears’s estate — $2,000 more than is allotted for her — and an additional $2,000 per month for his office expenses.

The petition to remove the singer’s father from her conservatorship was supported by her mother, Lynne Spears, who said in a court filing that her daughter’s relationship with her father had “dwindled to nothing but fear and hatred” after he “exercised absolutely microscopic control” over her life.

“Although a two-month wait for a hearing on the Petition may not seem significant in the context of 13 years,” Rosengart stated in his request for an earlier court date. “Ms. Spears should not be forced to continue feel traumatized, lose sleep, and suffer further. Every day matters.”

CNN’s Cheri Mossburg contributed to this report.

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