Britney Spears has officially filed a petition to remove her father Jamie Spears as conservator of her estate – with a proposed replacement.
According to documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Monday and obtained by USA TODAY, Spears, through her legal team led by attorney Mathew Rosengart, asks to replace her father as conservator with Jason Rubin, a certified public accountant based in Woodland Hills, California.
Given the court’s recognition that Britney Spears “has sufficient capacity to choose her own legal counsel, she likewise has sufficient capacity to make this nomination,” reads the petition, citing the pop star’s July 14 hiring of Rosengart in place of her previous court-appointed attorney.
According to the website for his firm Certified Strategies, which specializes in conservatorship needs and other issues, Rubin has been practicing as a full-time forensic accountant since 1993 with experience managing complex trust portfolios and taking on financial elder abuse litigation.
The filing also includes financial details regarding Spears’ estate, including the value of her cash and non-cash assets. The combined value of Spears’ assets listed in the document totals over $57 million, with over $2.7 million in cash assets and over $54.5 million in non-cash assets.
Britney Spears says she won’t perform again. Could she really retire on $60 million?
In a separate petition filed Monday, Spears’ lawyers requested Jamie’s removal from their client’s “Kafkaesque nightmare” of a conservatorship.
“For more than thirteen years, (Spears) has endured a conservatorship that, certainly as it concerns (Jamie) has grown increasingly toxic and is simply no longer tenable,” the petition reads.
The filing suggests Jamie Spears should willingly step aside, but says regardless, “freeing Ms. Spears from the control of a conservator whose presence is inimical to his daughter’s well-being cannot wait. Nor should it have to.”
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 29.
Lynne Spears speaks out, alleges ‘microscopic control’ of Britney
Lynne Spears, Britney’s mother and Jamie’ ex-wife, alleged in a declaration included in Rosengart’s 127-page Monday filing that Jamie’s “microscopic control” over the pop star’s 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 said.
“Since this conservatorship has been in place, the relationship between the conservatee and Mr. Spears has dwindled to nothing but fear and hatred of Mr. Spears by the conservatee due to Mr. Spears’ behavior,” Lynne’s declaration continued, per Billboard and Fox News, adding that an alleged physical altercation between Jamie and Spears’ teenage sons Sean Preston and Jayden James Federline “understandably destroyed whatever was left” of their relationship.
On July 14, Judge Brenda Penny granted Spears’ request to hire Rosengart, a former federal prosecutor-turned-skilled litigator, to be her lawyer amid her ongoing effort to end her 13-year conservatorship, under which she has little control over her finances or major life decisions.
Spears, 39, who dialed into the hearing, spoke for about 15 minutes and became emotional, saying she wants an “investigation” of her conservatorship.
She reiterated that she wants her father out as a co-conservator, and that she refuses to undergo more medical assessments.
She also said she wants Jodi Montgomery, the state-appointed conservator of her person, to continue in that role.
Jamie’s lawyer, Vivian Thoreen, pushed back on a variety of issues, including questioning why Montgomery has been allowed to stay as a conservator after Spears criticized Montgomery at the hearing last month.
Thoreen also challenged other elements of what the singer said, questioning why she was allowed to speak at length but “no one else has been afforded the opportunity.”
Britney Spears says ‘#FreeBritney’ after winning right to hire lawyer in conservatorship case
Contributing: Bill Keveney and Maria Puente, USA TODAY; Andrew Dalton, Associated Press
The post Britney Spears aims to remove dad Jamie from 'nightmare' conservatorship as mom Lynne speaks out appeared first on The News Amed.