'No Legal Authority' to Support Filing by Britney Spears' Mum to Cover $660K of Legal Fees - Lawyer
13:11 GMT 07.04.2022 (Updated: 13:12 GMT 07.04.2022)
© AP Photo / Chris Pizzello
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In November of 2021 a court terminated Britney Spears’ 13-year conservatorship, throughout which her father, Jamie, controlled every aspect of his daughter's life. At the same time, the Toxic singer’s mother, Lynne Spears, filed a court request to have Britney pay her legal fees.
Britney Spears’ lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, has argued that there is “no legal authority supporting the petition” filed by her mother in November 2021 to have over $660,000 of her legal fees covered by the singer's estate, reported Page Six.
Back in November 2021 a court finally terminated the pop diva's conservatorship, in line with which her father, Jamie, controlled everything from her personal choices to finances and career decisions. That same month Lynne Spears claimed in her petition that daughter Britney had “enthusiastically agreed” to her becoming an interested party in the legal battle to “help end [Britney’s] nightmare and the crisis she was enduring” under the conservatorship.
The woman’s legal counsel had previously itemised arranging meetings, phone calls, emails, preparation of documents and court appearances prior to the dissolution of Britney’s 13-year conservatorship as services rendered.
“Britney Spears has for decades been her family’s sole breadwinner, supporting her entire family,” Rosengart argued on Tuesday, according to court documents cited by the outlet.
The Toxic singer’s father, Jamie Spears, 69, who served as her conservator from February 2008 until his suspension in September 2021, “had a long history of financial mismanagement,” including a bankruptcy filing, reminded the lawyer.
The musician’s father had received “more than $6 million” from her estate for his role as her conservator, stated Rosengart, adding that this had enabled him to profit “handsomely from her very hard work.”
Protesters attend a #FreeBritney Rally at Stanley Mosk Courthouse on July 14, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. The group is calling for an end to the 13-year conservatorship lead by the pop star's father, Jamie Spears and Jodi Montgomery, who have control over her finances and business dealings. Planned co-conservator Bessemer Trust is petitioning the court to resign from its position after Britney Spears spoke out in court about the conservatorship.
© AFP 2023 / EMMA MCINTYRE
As for the Grammy winner’s mother, Lynne Spears, Mathew Rosengart underscored that she “for at least a decade resided in a large, expansive house owned by Britney Spears in Kentwood, Louisiana, for which her daughter has also continuously — and generously — paid Lynne Spears’ utilities, telephone services, insurance, property taxes, landscaping, pool work, pest control, repairs and maintenance, totalling approximately $1.7 million.”
Furthermore, the 66-year old woman was no more than a “third party” in the artist’s conservatorship case, emphasised the attorney, adding that there is “no legal basis for placing” Britney Spears “in the middle of it.”
Britney Spears had endured a protracted court battle with her father Jamie to rid herself of the conservatorship she had been placed under after suffering a series of mental breakdowns in 2008. At the time, the singer was seen attacking a paparazzi car with an umbrella, shaving her head, and becoming involved in a standoff with police.
Accordingly, a court named her father Jamie as her guardian in a conservatorship granted when a person is deemed incapable of caring for themselves. The defining issue may range from neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's to mental illnesses.
29 March 2022, 12:38 GMT
In 2020, Britney Spears voiced her wish to have her father removed from the conservatorship, as she accused Jamie of forcing her to perform against her will, besides placing other restrictions on her, such as effectively implementing a ban on pregnancy. Jamie Spears denied the accusations against him.
In November of 2021, the court terminated the musician's conservatorship, after which the musician, who already has two sons – Sean Preston, 16, and Jayden James, 15, – from her second marriage to dancer Kevin Federline, announced her engagement to actor and personal trainer Sam Asghari.
