FILE – Britney Spears arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” on July 22, 2019. When Spears speaks to a judge at her own request on Wednesday, June. 23, 2021, she’ll do it 13 years into a court-enforced conservatorship that has exercised vast control of her life and money by her father. Spears has said the conservatorship saved her from collapse and exploitation. But she has sought more control over how it operates, and says she wants her father out.
Britney Spears’ newly appointed lawyer Mathew Rosengart is interviewed outside the Stanley Mosk Courthouse following a hearing concerning the pop singer’s conservatorship, Wednesday, July 14, 2021, in Los Angeles. Spears was granted permission by a judge to hire a lawyer of her own choice.
A Britney Spears supporter waves a “Free Britney” flag outside a court hearing concerning the pop singer’s conservatorship at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, Wednesday, June 23, 2021, in Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney Spears’ new attorney petitioned Monday to oust her father from the conservatorship that has controlled her life and money for 13 years and replace him with a professional accountant.
Matthew Rosengart said in documents filed in Los Angeles Superior court that the current legal arrangement “has grown increasingly toxic and is simply no longer tenable.”
He proposed that James Spears be replaced with CPA Jason Rubin as conservator of the pop star’s estate, which documents say equates to $2.7 million in cash and more than $57 million in assets.
Rosengart said in the filing that before he sought to end the conservatorship, he was first addressing “the most pressing issue facing Ms. Spears: removing Mr. Spears as conservator of the estate.”
“Any father who genuinely loves his daughter and has her best interests at heart should willingly step aside in favor of the highly respected professional fiduciary nominated here,” Rosengart said in the documents.
Lynne Spears, Britney’s mother and James’ ex-wife, said in a declaration supporting Rosengart’s filing that his “microscopic control” over her health care and business decisions in a key period in 2018 and 2019 was especially damaging.
“Such scrutiny is exhausting and terrifying, like living in custody,” Lynne Spears said.
