Britney Spears

I thought they were trying to kill me.

Britney Spears in a private hearing about her conservatorship. A judge rules she can hire her own lawyer.

• Britney Spears provided testimony by phone, challenging her conservatorship.
  
• She said she wants her father (who oversees her affairs) to be investigated and charged with abuse.
  
• Several key players in her conservatorship (her court-appointed lawyer, as well as a financial firm helping to oversee and manage her money) have resigned after previous testimony by Spears at the end of June described questionable conditions of her conservatorship.
  
• Spears’ new lawyer is a Hollywood heavyweight: Mathew Rosengart. He asked for Britney’s father to voluntarily step aside; Jamie Spears’ lawyer rejected this request.
  
• Why This Matters: Britney Spears hasn’t had access to her own representation in 13 years due to this legal conservatorship. The next step to watch? If her new lawyer will officially ask the court to remove her father’s involvement (this would have to be filed in an official capacity).

P.S. Important context here from The New York Times:

Now, attention will turn to Mr. Rosengart’s strategy. Should he file to terminate the conservatorship altogether on behalf of Ms. Spears, someone else involved in the arrangement — most likely Ms. Spears’s father — could object, possibly triggering a trial before the judge makes a final decision.

In addition to raising the stakes of the conservatorship fight, the recent developments have led to an increase in legal billings. This week, one set of lawyers for Mr. Spears filed an updated petition seeking approval by the court for more than $1 million in fees for about eight months of work.

Under the California conservatorship system, Ms. Spears is responsible for paying the lawyers working on all sides of the arrangement, including those arguing against her wishes.

“This system is broken,” Gladstone N. Jones, a lawyer for Lynne Spears, said in court on Wednesday. “This is lawyers gone wild.”

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 29.

Read the full article here or, if you meet a firewall, the Associated Press has a very good summary – and CNN did a play-by-play for the hearing.