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Artist News Legal
Britney Spears’ father says there are “no grounds whatsoever” to remove him from her conservatorship
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 9 August 2021
Britney Spears’ father Jamie Spears has said that there are “no grounds whatsoever” for removing him from the conservatorship that controls his daughter’s finances and personal affairs. A legal filing made last week added that Spears Senior “has dutifully and faithfully served as the conservator of his daughter’s estate without any blemishes on his record”.
The musician’s new lawyer Mathew Rosengart began proceedings to have his client’s father removed from his role as conservator of her estate last month. Spears Senior has played a key role in running the conservatorship ever since it was put in place thirteen years ago, with just one short period where he stood down from his formal position of conservator due to ill health.
It was when he sought to resume his responsibilities after that break that legal wrangling began regarding the increasingly controversial conservatorship. That ultimately led to the headline-grabbing testimony from Britney herself in which she dubbed the conservatorship “abusive” and told the court that she wanted the arrangement to be brought to an end.
Rosengart’s attempts to have Spears Senior removed as the conservator in charge of the pop star’s finances is seen as a first step in making that happen. Requesting that removal last month, the lawyer said that “serious questions abound” concerning Jamie’s “potential misconduct” during the conservatorship.
But in response, Jamie said in a legal filing last week that his daughter’s new lawyer “does not – and cannot – specify what the wrongdoing is” that justifies having him removed from his conservator role.
He also took issue with his removal from the conservatorship being supported by Jodi Montgomery, who is currently the conservator responsible for Britney’s personal affairs and well-being. Montgomery’s recent support for his removal was “ironic”, he argued, because just last month she had called him expressing concern about his daughter’s mental health and requesting his help.
“Ms Montgomery sounded very distraught and expressed how concerned she was about my daughters’ recent behaviour and overall mental health”, Jamie said in a personal declaration to the court.
“Ms Montgomery explained that my daughter was not timely or properly taking her medications, was not listening to the recommendations of her medical team, and refused to even see some of her doctors. Ms Montgomery said she was very worried about the direction my daughter was heading in and directly asked for my help to address these issues”.
However, in response to the new legal filing, Montgomery has said that she reached out to Jamie last month to express concern that an investigation he’d called for into Britney’s recent claims regarding the conservatorship would be detrimental to his daughter’s health.
And she has reiterated that, in her opinion, removing Spears Senior from his conservator role is a sensible step, adding: “Having her father Jamie Spears continuing to serve as her conservator instead of a neutral professional fiduciary is having a serious impact on Ms Spears’ mental health”.
The application to have Jamie Spears removed from the conservatorship should be heard in court on 29 Sep, though Rosengart has requested that a hearing take place sooner.
