Britney Spears‘ conservatorship is terminated, but the legal battle continues for the pop star.
In the latest move in the saga against her father Jamie Spears — who was her former conservator — the pop star’s attorney is blasting the elder Spears for seeking “revenge” by trying to depose his famous daughter, calling it a “low blow” and a strategy to “intimidate” the singer.
“He now, with no legitimate, good-faith basis, seeks to take a sham deposition of his daughter, all in an effort to upset and intimidate her,” the star’s attorney, Mathew Rosengart, wrote in a new legal filing to the Los Angeles Superior Court.
The next hearing in Spears’ case is set to be held on July 13, where this matter is expected to be addressed in court. But if the conservatorship is over, why is this messy battle still ongoing?
The singer is still fighting against her father, who has requested she pay his hefty legal bills, despite being suspended by the court, shortly before the conservatorship was terminated in November 2021. (Spears had been under a conservatorship for more than 13 years with her dad serving as her conservator for the majority of the court-approved arrangement, until he was suspended in September 2021.) Spears’ legal team claimed that her father was “abusive,” “cruel” and “toxic,” and took advantage of his role as conservator, taking millions from his superstar daughter’s earnings, instead of looking out for her best interest. Rosengart has pledged to investigate his conduct, but has said that his client’s father has failed to appear for his deposition three times.
Spears’ father has continuously stated he loves his daughter and was always serving in her best interest throughout his role as conservator. Last month, he filed court documents that claimed she had gone on a social media campaign to sully his name, asking her to sit for a deposition to be questioned under oath about her post. Those docs from the elder Spears’ attorney, Alex Weingarten, stated that the singer “continues to make public social media posts containing incendiary allegations of various factual matters.”
With Jamie Spears’ team asking Britney Spears’ team to schedule a deposition, the singer’s lawyer is now blasting him in new court docs for seeking “revenge” through a “sham deposition” of his daughter.
“James P. Spears should be ashamed, but as he has proven even in the relatively-short time since he was suspended in disgrace as conservator, he is utterly shameless,” Rosengart writes in the new filing.
Rosengart says that Spears’ father has dodged his own deposition and has not produced documents that the singer’s legal team has requested, and he’s now trying to turn the tables with a new “strategy” to “intimidate” his daughter by trying to depose her.
The attorney writes, in part: “Rather than abiding by his fiduciary obligations, producing all documents in a proper, labelled, and professional manner (including his email and text messages concerning the illicit surveillance operation, of which he has produced none), and submitting to his own deposition (which he has been hiding from since 2021).”
Rosengart calls Spears’ request to depose his daughter “a particularly low blow even for him.”
“Mr. Spears and his counsel chose to file their meritless motion shortly after his daughter’s wedding and just before Father’s Day,” Rosengart writes. (After dating for five years, Spears married actor Sam Asghari earlier this month at an intimate wedding with guests including Madonna and Paris Hilton.)
Rosengart states in the filing that after asking Spears to resign as conservator last year, he refused and was then suspended by the court, and now, “refuses to simply go away, as he should and as any decent man or father would do.”
“Instead, he chose to run up legal fees, abuse the system, and begin a battle he cannot win — all for improper purposes, while futilely trying to rehabilitate his reputation, which he himself long ago irreparably destroyed.”
In asking the court to deny the elder Spears’ request to for a “revenge deposition,” Rosengart notes that his own conduct “ranging from his severe alcoholism, to bankruptcy, defaults, financial mismanagement, conflicts of interest, illicit surveillance, violating his daughter’s attorney-client relationship, and other abuses, effectively render him libel proof.”
“He could not sustain a living before the conservatorship (from which he reaped at least $6.3 million), and it appears he cannot do so now,” Rosengart’s filing continues. “But that is his fault, not his daughter’s.”
