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Britney Spears’ father criticises court ruling removing him from his daughter’s conservatorship
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 1 October 2021
Britney Spears’ father Jamie yesterday criticised the decision by an LA court earlier this week to remove him as conservator of his daughter’s estate. A legal rep for Jamie defended her client’s record in running the conservatorship that has controlled Britney’s personal and financial affairs for thirteen years, while again arguing that the court should have prioritised terminating the conservatorship entirely, rather than replacing Jamie with an alternative temporary conservator.
Britney and her lawyer Mathew Rosengart also support the termination of the conservatorship. However – since being appointed as Britney’s attorney earlier this year – Rosengart has insisted that Jamie needs to be urgently removed from having any involvement in his daughter’s finances before any termination process begins.
Jamie’s role in running his daughter’s financial affairs first came into the spotlight after he temporarily stood down due to ill health. On his return, it was claimed that Britney no longer wanted her father involved in the conservatorship. In the subsequent legal back and forth, Britney gave her headline-grabbing testimony in which she was very critical of the conservatorship in general and Jamie’s role in particular. Shortly after that testimony, Britney’s court-appointed lawyer stood down, and Rosengart was hired.
He has accused Jamie of mismanaging Britney’s finances. And when Jamie suddenly changed his position last month regarding the future of Britney’s conservatorship – calling for it to be terminated somewhat out of the blue – Rosengart claimed that Jamie now wanted the conservatorship to end in order to avoid his past conduct from being scrutinised.
At a court hearing earlier this week, Jamie’s lawyer Vivian Thoreen denied all the claims Rosengart had made about her client and insisted that terminating the conservatorship was the priority. However, judge Brenda Penny said that – given the breakdown in relations between Britney and her father – “the current situation is not tenable and appears to be a toxic environment”.
With that in mind, she replaced Jamie as conservator of Britney’s estate with accountant John Zabel, and then indicated that she hoped to terminate the conservatorship by the end of the year.
In a statement issued yesterday, Thoreen stated: “Mr Spears loves his daughter Britney unconditionally. For thirteen years, he has tried to do what is in her best interests, whether as a conservator or her father. This started with agreeing to serve as her conservator when she voluntarily entered into the conservatorship. This included helping her revive her career and re-establish a relationship with her children”.
“For anyone who has tried to help a family member dealing with mental health issues, they can appreciate the tremendous amount of daily worry and work this required”, the statement continued. “For Mr Spears, this also meant biting his tongue and not responding to all the false, speculative, and unsubstantiated attacks on him by certain members of the public, media, or more recently, Britney’s own attorney”.
Turning to this week’s ruling, Thoreen went on: “These facts make the outcome of yesterday’s hearing all the more disappointing, and frankly, a loss for Britney. Respectfully, the court was wrong to suspend Mr Spears, put a stranger in his place to manage Britney’s estate, and extend the very conservatorship that Britney begged the court to terminate earlier this summer”.
On the termination of the conservatorship, she added: “Again, it was Mr Spears who took the initiative to file the petition to terminate the conservatorship when neither Britney’s former court-appointed counsel nor her new privately-retained attorney would do so. It was Mr Spears who asked the court at yesterday’s hearing to immediately terminate the conservatorship while Britney’s own attorney argued against it”
“Despite the suspension”, Thoreen concluded, “Mr Spears will continue to look out for the best interests of his daughter and work in good faith towards a positive resolution of all matters”.
