In Los Angeles County Superior Court earlier this week, a judge upheld Britney’s father James “Jamie” Spears’ role, but didn’t close the door on ousting him at a future date and – per the singer’s request – appointed a financial fiduciary as a co-conservator, according to court documents. The hearing was set to review accounting – an annual report delineating Britney’s expenses and her father’s expenditures on her behalf – as well as the appointment of conservators and the review of multiple motions.

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During the hearing, lawyers for Britney and her mother, Lynne, reportedly urged the 38-year-old singer’s father to step down from the conservatorship, which has dictated the pop star’s life and career for more than a decade.

The singer is said to be afraid of her father and will reportedly not perform until he no longer has control over her career – a role he’s taken on since her public unravelling in 2008.

In January 2019, she abruptly cancelled her Britney: Domination residency in Las Vegas before it even began, then checked into a mental health facility. She has not performed live since 2018. According to Associated Press, Us Weekly and TMZ, Britney’s lawyer blamed the singer’s professional hiatus on her father.

“My client has informed me that she is afraid of her father. She will not perform as long as her father is in charge of her career,” Samuel D. Ingham III said in the hearing conducted via phone and videoconference. (Britney did not attend but her parents were present via video, according to court documents.)

James’ lawyer, Vivian Lee Thoreen, told the judge there she doesn’t believe “there is a shred of evidence” to support his suspension and objected to Ingham’s statements about the father-daughter relationship as inadmissible hearsay, AP reported.

Another hearing has been set for December 16 at 9:30am.

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Is this all really necessary?

Legal experts say that it is unusual for someone as young and productive as Britney to be in a probate conservatorship, typically used to protect the old, infirm and mentally disabled. Her arrangement was expected to be temporary, as such conservatorships are usually intended for people who are not likely to get better and often remain in effect until the person dies.

Britney’s two-part conservatorship was meant to safeguard her person and her estate in 2008, and has done so as the star mounted a personal and professional comeback in the years since. But the probate case’s unusually long duration has garnered interest and grown increasingly heated in the last year as the rampant, fan-fuelled #FreeBritney movement has gained traction.

Several developments occurred over the summer as Britney and her team began to make more candid statements about her personal affairs in court filings – among them, repeated requests to recuse her father of his oversight duties altogether, reassigning control of her more than US$60 million in assets to other conservators of her choosing.

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Among the revelations were Britney’s admission that the conservatorship is “voluntary” and that she would no longer like to perform professionally. (At this week’s hearing, Ingham referred to the mother of two as a “high-functioning conservatee” and said that she and her father had not spoken in a very long time.)

Britney wants fans to know the truth

In an early September filing in Los Angeles Superior Court, the entertainer gave credence to the viral #FreeBritney campaign whose organisers James had dismissed as “conspiracy theorists”. Ingham asked the court to open Britney’s protracted conservatorship to public scrutiny after it had been sealed at her father’s behest for years. James has argued that the family business should remain private.

Her father has stepped down from a separate role – the conservator of her person – in September 2019 after citing his own “personal health reasons”, but remained the conservator of her estate. In August, the singer expressed her wishes to have him removed entirely.

She then requested that her temporary conservator of her person, Jodi Montgomery, be placed in a permanent role, and that a corporate fiduciary, Bessemer Trust Co., be appointed to manage her estate.

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At the hearing, Judge Brenda J. Penny denied Britney’s request to suspend her father immediately upon the appointment of Bessemer as sole conservator of the estate. But the decision was made without prejudice, meaning he can be suspended at a later time.

Earlier this month, Britney’s younger sister, actress Jamie Lynn Spears, withdrew her petition to serve as a trustee to the singer’s SJB Trust. She had been selected as trustee of the pop superstar’s multimillion-dollar estate two years ago.

The singer’s business manager, Lou M. Taylor, and her company, Tri Star Sports & Entertainment, also resigned. The singer’s lawyer also said that James appointed a new business manager, but didn’t tell the star.

In his own filings, James argued that he has done his job well and turned his daughter’s estate – once debt ridden and facing millions of dollars in lawsuits – into one worth more than US$60 million.

Britney’s fans are fighting for her freedom

The #FreeBritney movement has closely followed the few publicly available developments in the case and has called for an investigation of the conservatorship. Some fans associated with the campaign have long claimed that the pop star has been using social media to send coded cries for help (for example, a follower previously urged her to wear a specific colour outfit in her next Instagram post; when she did, it was interpreted as a sign that she was requesting aid) – but her camp has not publicly commented on those theories.

In August, organisers from the campaign said that many people subscribing to the #FreeBritney movement have studied the court documents available to the public, leading them to believe that the entertainer’s constitutional rights have been implicated and that some of her human rights are being violated.

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#FreeBritney organisers, who during hearings about the conservatorship usually protest outside the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, attended this week’s public hearing and said that the appointment of Bessemer as a co-conservator was a “big win for Britney”.

“Ingham did a fantastic job fighting for Britney’s interests,” spokesperson Pilar Vigneaux said. “We support Britney’s decision of not working while James Spears remains involved in and in control of her life.”

This article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

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