Britney Spears’ mother, Lynne, asks the court to let her daughter pick her own lawyer
Britney Spears’ mother is pleading with the court to listen to her daughter.
In a petition filed Tuesday with the L.A. County Superior Court, Lynne Spears requested that her middle child be allowed to hire her own private attorney, or to have the court appoint an attorney of the singer’s choosing.
“Appointment of independent counsel is mandatory at this juncture,” the petition says. Samuel Ingham III, who had been Spears’ attorney since her conservatorship started in 2008, resigned as her counsel Tuesday, along with attorneys from the firm of Loeb & Loeb.
“It is self-evident that before the Court addresses, for example, the termination of the conservatorship, Conservatee must be allowed to consult with counsel of her choosing,” the petition says.
Britney Spears finally spoke out about her conservatorship, but what’s next? ‘Once the system gets ahold of you, it is hard to get out,’ an attorney says.
The ability to select her own representation was among the requests made by Spears, 39, when she appeared before the court via telephone June 23. But it was far from her only request.
The singer told the court that she wants out of her conservatorship, and she wants father Jamie Spears’ hands off her money. She wants to see her friends, ride in her boyfriend’s car, speak up for herself, get married and have a baby, which she says she can’t do because she’s not allowed to remove her IUD. All of those demands were reiterated in Lynne Spears’ petition.
“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,’” the petition says, noting that the singer has been able to earn “literally hundreds of millions of dollars as an international celebrity” since the conservatorship was put in place.
Last week, father Jamie Spears asked the court to investigate his daughter’s “serious allegations regarding forced labor, forced medical treatment and therapy, improper medical care, and limitations on personal rights.” He wanted the court to confirm that what the singer said was accurate.
Jamie Spears was replaced by Jodi Montgomery as conservator of his daughter’s person in December 2019 but has continued as conservator of her estate. Bessemer Trust was appointed as a co-conservator of the estate last November but on Friday filed paperwork to resign from that position, saying that due to a paperwork hold-up, it hadn’t done any work on the case.
Britney Spears’ manager and financial co-conservator put in resignation requests, with court-appointed lawyer Sam Ingham III expected to do the same.
Among other things, Britney Spears said at the open hearing in June that she was forced to take lithium, which she didn’t want, and ordered to see a therapist outside of her home, enabling paparazzi to locate her and take unflattering photographs.
“I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive,” she told the court. “I want to end the conservatorship without being evaluated.”
Britney Spears has been under a conservatorship since 2008. Before her virtual appearance at a court hearing today, here’s a deep dive into her case.
She said she had lied in 2019 when she told the court, in a closed session, that she was fine.
“Now I’m telling the truth, OK, I’m not happy. I’m so angry it’s insane, and I’m depressed. I cry every day,” the pop star said. All the state of California seemed able to do, she said, was to hire people using her money to complicate her life.
The next court date in Spears’ conservatorship case is July 14.
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