For the first time in nearly 14 years, Britney Spears is free to make her own decisions about her body and finances.
A judge ruled to end the singer’s conservatorship after 13 years.
via NPR:
For most of the time she was under the conservatorship, the singer has said, she masked her true feelings about the situation, but she began speaking out publicly this summer, asking for the legal arrangement to be terminated.
The conservatorship was split into two parts: the conservatorship of Spears’ estate, which controlled all her income and financial decisions, and the conservatorship of Spears’ person, which was in charge of her well-being and health. Jamie Spears had been suspended as conservator of her estate in late September, after the singer accused her father of exploiting her. Since then, the conservatorship of her estate was placed with a certified public accountant named John Zabel. Since 2019, the conservator of Britney Spears’ person has been a licensed personal fiduciary and care professional named Jodi Montgomery.
The singer and her lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, had asked the court to end the conservatorship with no further medical or psychological evaluations of Spears.
Still, the battle between the singer and her father is far from over. In a court filing last week, Rosengart requested to depose Jamie Spears and asked for materials related to the alleged surveillance of Britney Spears, which The New York Times reported in a September documentary. Rosengart has also hired forensic accountants to look into how the elder Spears used his daughter’s money over the course of the conservatorship.
Spears’ case has thrown a spotlight on thorny issues around conservatorship — which is generally used for elderly people and individuals with significant disabilities. Activists argue that such legal constrictions are ripe for abuse, or limit conservatees’ civil rights. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have used the attention around Britney Spears to champion reforms.
Now that she’s a free woman — we wonder what she’s going to do next!
