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Judge Sides With Britney Spears In Conservatorship Hearing, Granting Third Party Power Over Her Finances
Judge Brenda Penny ruled that financial firm Bessemer Trust will be granted as much power as Britney Spears' father Jamie Spears in the controversial conservatorship the singer operates under.
A judge has sided with pop icon Britney Spears, granting a third party equal power to her father in managing her finances as she continues to fight to have her dad removed from her conservatorship.
Los Angeles Judge Brenda Penny ruled on Thursday that Jamie Spears must work with financial firm Bessemer Trust to come up with a budget and investment plan for Britney, CBS News reports. The singer has been under a controversial conservatorship since 2008, with her father primarily overseeing her finances, business dealings and legal matters. Britney has been asking for the financial company as well as care manager Jodi Montgomery, who temporarily took over the conservatorship in 2019 as Jamie dealt with health problems, to replace her father as overseer of her finances, her lawyer Samuel D. Ingham III stated in a 2020 filing, US Weekly reported.
Penny denied an attempt from Britney's legal team to completely remove her father from the conservatorship back in November.
“My client has informed me that she is afraid of her father,” Ingham told the judge at that time, the Associated Press reported. “She will not perform again if her father is in charge of her career.”
On Thursday, Ingham reiterated to the judge that “it’s not secret” that Britney wants her dad removed as her conservator, CBS News reports. However, he classified such a removal as a “separate issue.”
Meanwhile, Jamie's attorney Vivian Thoreen called the new co-conservatorship between him and the financial company "unclear and ambiguous by design” on Thursday.
Later that day, the attorney put out a statement saying: "My client looks forward to working with Bessemer to continue an investment strategy in the best interests of his daughter."
Thoreen was one of several people featured in “Framing Britney,” the recent New York Times-created documentary available on FX and Hulu, which explores how Britney became a pop culture object, often at the expense of her personhood. The documentary questions the fairness of the conservatorship and criticizes her treatment in the media, particularly around 2007 amidst a possible mental health crisis that was followed soon thereafter by the conservatorship arrangement.
Lawyers representing both the singer and her father are due back in court on March 17. Lawyers representing both sides have not immediately responded to Oxygen.com's requests for comment.
