Britney Spears’ conservatorship has legally been terminated, but the singer is still embroiled in a heated court battle with her father and former conservator, Jamie Spears.
A judge ruled that Britney, 40, was no longer required to live under the legal arrangement — which came into effect in 2008 — in a momentous court hearing last November, which came months after the singer had publicly spoken out against its “abusive” terms in court.
“My dad and anyone involved in this conservatorship and my management who played a key role in punishing me — they should be in jail,” she told the courtroom.
“I would honestly like to sue my family, to be totally honest with you,” she added. “I want to be able to be heard on what they did to me by making me keep this in for so long.” Jamie responded to Britney’s testimony by giving a statement through his attorney, in which he said he was “sorry to see his daughter suffering and in so much pain.”
Jamie ended up being suspended from his role as conservator with immediate effect in September, which saw Britney making a celebratory announcement that she was “on cloud 9” shortly afterward.
Meanwhile, Britney’s lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, told reporters at the courthouse that the singer would sue her father if it was uncovered that any of her money had been misappropriated. He also seemingly suggested that Jamie could face criminal charges for his alleged mishandling of her financial affairs.
And on the day that Jamie was suspended, Rosengart publicly announced that he’d be facing “serious ramifications for his misconduct.”
Britney Spears’ attorney Mat Rosengart announces that her father has been suspended today #FreeBritney
In the months that Britney has been free from the conservatorship, she’s continued to make it clear that she feels Jamie should be in jail for his handling of her life and finances. “What Dad did to me, they don’t even do to criminals. ... I’m honestly shocked Dad isn’t in jail,” she wrote on Twitter earlier this year.
Back in January, the singer requested — through her legal team — that Jamie sit down for a formal deposition to answer her questions under oath.
Now, Britney and her lawyers have accused Jamie of purposefully avoiding the deposition, claiming in a new motion that he did not appear for three proposed dates and that he hasn’t yet agreed to any suggested alternatives.
In the legal documents, which have been obtained by TMZ, Rosengart accused Jamie of “running and hiding” from answering Britney’s questions — allegedly for over five months — to avoid taking any accountability for his alleged financial mishandling.
Rosengart also claimed that he can prove Jamie was overseeing “a corrupted and conflicted conservatorship that stripped his daughter of certain fundamental liberties.”
He went on to shockingly allege that Jamie paid himself $6.3 million of Britney’s money and gave tens of millions of dollars more to various others involved in the legal arrangement.
Elsewhere in the filings, Rosengart claimed that Jamie “continues to harass and bully” Britney by “failing to cooperate” with her requests for financial transparency as he “hides from answering essential deposition questions,” among “other things.”
Meanwhile, Jamie has reportedly only agreed to sit down for a deposition in his hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana, and has refused to travel elsewhere. Rosengart has now purportedly said that he’d make the trip there if it meant Britney’s questions would be answered under oath.
This all comes roughly nine months after Rosengart firmly requested an audit of Jamie’s financial dealings, alleging that there were several people “beholden” to him who were being “enriched from monies earned by [Britney], without her actual consent.”
Rosengart pointedly claimed that Jamie had “grossly overpaid” entertainment company Tri Star — which was founded by Britney's former business manager, Lou Taylor, back in 2019 — by more than $300,000 after he allegedly agreed to a $500,000 “floor” when the pop star went on a work hiatus in early 2019.
The lawyer also claimed that Jamie had been paying himself $2,000 more per month than what he’d allocated to Britney, as well as an extra $2,000 monthly for his office expenses.
