Britney Spears’ attorney filed a petition Thursday asking the court to immediately remove her father as conservator, noting that an investigation may be required into his financial dealings while in control of her estate.
via: People
“Conservatee moves for the immediate suspension of James P. Spears as Conservator and the appointment of Jason Rubin as Temporary Conservator pending the hearing presently set for September 29, 2021,” reads the court filing obtained by PEOPLE.
“Although a two-month wait for a hearing on the Petition may not seem significant in the context of 13 years, Ms. Spears should not be forced to continue to feel traumatized, lose sleep, and suffer further,” states the document. “Every day matters.”
According to a source close to the situation, Britney is pushing for Rubin to act as her estate conservator “because he’s not just a regular CPA, but a forensic investigator CPA.”
“Basically he’s going to go back and look at all of the expenses and money that has been spent over the years,” adds the source. “Britney’s determined to find out if her funds have been misused.”
A lawyer for Jamie Spears, 69, has not respond to multiple requests for comment from PEOPLE.
In Britney’s latest filing, the star asks the court to remove Jamie as estate conservator “as early as the court will permit” on or after Aug. 23.
“Every day that passes is another day of avoidable harm and prejudice to Ms. Spears and the Estate,” states Rosengart in the filing, which notes that Britney’s emotional health and well-being are “the paramount concern.”
“In short, for a variety of legitimate, compelling reasons in the conservatee’s best interests, the time has come for Mr. Spears’s reign to end,” the filing continued.
Jamie’s removal, according to the filing, will allow Britney, 39, to “begin to have a semblance of her ‘life back.'” The change “does not even ask him to admit to fault,” adds Rosengart in the document.
The filing quotes directly from Britney’s statements at both her June 23 and July 14 bombshell hearings, during which she alleged undergoing abuse by the conservatorship and requested to press charges against her father.
The filing also referred to a court filing from her personal conservator Jodi Montgomery, who descrobed Jamie’s removal — a move she said is supported by the singer’s medical team — as “critical” to Britney’s emotional health. Montgomery made a court filing stating that she “fully and unequivocally supports” Britney’s filing.
Britney’s mother, Lynne, is also quoted in Britney’s latest filing as saying Jamie is “incapable of putting my daughter’s interests of his own.”
“If Mr. Spears truly had the best interests of his daughter in mind, consistent with his obligation as a fiduciary to elevate her interests above his own, he would resign, today,” the filing reads.
During Britney’s late June hearing, Jamie’s attorney Vivian Lee Thoreen addressed the court to share a statement from her client, saying, “[Jamie] is sorry to see his daughter in so much pain. [He] loves his daughter and misses her very much.”
Spears officially filed a petition to remove Jamie as conservator on July 26 when she requested Rubin to take over his role. Jamie has been the conservator of her estate since 2008.
“Ms. Spears respectfully submits that the Court should appoint her nominee; in that, it is an objectively intelligent preference to nominate a highly qualified, professional fiduciary in this circumstance,” the documents read. “Moreover, Ms. Spears respectfully submits that, given the Court’s recognition at the July 14, 2021, hearing that Ms. Spears has sufficient capacity to choose her own legal counsel, she likewise has sufficient capacity to make this nomination.”
Thursday’s court filing is the latest in Britney’s 13-year conservatorship saga. After a public breakdown, Britney was placed under a conservatorship in 2008, and a judge then appointed Jamie as both the conservator of her person and the conservator of her estate.
In 2019, Jamie stepped down as the conservator of her person after an alleged physical altercation with Britney and ex-husband Kevin Federline’s son Sean Preston, 15. (The exes are also parents to son Jayden James, 14.) At the time, Jodi Montgomery, a care manager, took over as Britney’s conservator of her person.
#FreeBritney
