At least on the senior citizen side there was a Last Week Tonight piece about guardianship which seems very similar a couple years ago:
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My husband and I were literally watching this last night and I was wishing that he would make one surrounding this Free Britney situation too.
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I didn’t make it through the whole Livestream as it was naptime, but wooooah that is a whole thing.
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Whoa, this article is worth a read.
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He’s stepping down!! But what does this mean for her? Is the other dude (lawyer?) still part of the conservatorship? This doesn’t dissolve/remove/whatever the conservatorship? I haven’t followed this closely but I’m glad things finally seem to be moving in the right direction for Britney.
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Unfortunately, it’s a little more complicated than that. His response to the court petition to remove him said he would step down (big win) when the the 12th accounting is resolved by the court. The 12th accounting for almost a year has been contested by britney’s lawyers because it includes over 1.7 million dollars of lawyer expenses for her dad paid by Britney, including almost $800,000 of “media fees” for her dad’s lawyers to go on TV to defend him.
So essentially the court response was britney’s dad’s lawyer saying “pay me and I’ll leave.”
This court filing by her dad proceeded to be a pukey PR-fest (this is because court speech is not defamation, it is protected speech) which attacked Britney’s mom (who raised concerns for her), gaslight Britney’s account of events in court, blamed anything bad in the conservatorship on her “medical team” and her professional conservtor, and reiterated how much Britney’s dad “loves her” and that he’s worked “tirelessly for her” and should be “thanked” for 13 years of doing this “24/7”.
So, to reiterate:
- He offered to step down as soon as the lawyer fees that Britney’s lawyer disputed get paid up
- No actual timeline to step down
- Britney is still paying for her dad’s lawyer to write these PR documents
- And britney is paying $18,000 per month for her dad’s salary until he steps down
Court hearing to actually remove him is coming September 29th.
Britney’s attorney Rosengart said that they are pleased that James is stepping aside but that they look forward to a “vigorous investigation into the conduct of Mr. Spears, and others, over the past 13 years”.
Her court-appointed lawyer left last month, and she was allowed to hire her own counsel, Former federal prosecutor Rosengart. He is her lawyer, not her conservator. He is fighting to get her out.
When her dad officially steps down, a professional accounting firm with experience in forensic accounting is stepping in as conservator of the estate.
The conservator of the person (vs the estate) is Jodi Montgomery. She is a professional conservator.
Nope, no petition has been filed to remove the conservatorship by Britney’s lawyers. Likely because they want to investigate her dad and all the back accounting -and they need the court to have jurisdiction over the case. If she’s not a conservatee anymore, than the court cannot order investigation of the misuse of funds. And they can’t really go after her dad for stuff done in the conservatorship if the conservatorship court says it’s legal.
So, order of operations is likely this for Britney’s lawyers:
- Remove Britney’s dad
- file restraining order on Britney’s dad for Britney
- Lessen personal restrictions on Britney through conservator of the person*
- Get the financial team to do forensic accounting and figure out wtf happened to Britney’s money
- Dissolve conservatorship
*This is both so britney feels more comfortable and happier but also so that they can prove she doesn’t need to be re-evaluated to end it
I watched a 2 hour livestream with a lawyer last night on the ins and outs 
If anyone is interested
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Thank you for that breakdown. I knew it was a victory* and that asterisk was hiding a lot of stuff, but I’ll still take any progress she can get.
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All this stuff reminds me of what happens to those poor K-Pop stars 
oof it’s such a sad/terrible industry. It’s all I can think about when I see them! It’s like real life Hunger Games shit. I wonder why entertainment tends to be so inhumane? Even in different countries? Like, is it just because it’s one of the few areas where kids can work and make a ton of money? Or is it maybe the type of adults it attracts and the types of parents who support their kids being in it? IDK. The porn industry is the only consistently worse legal business (in terms of abuse) that I can think of.
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You nailed it. Money.
And greedy people.
It’s always about money though.
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I think sex too, though. Money isn’t the only type of power they’re trading in. Like, there’s lots of money in retail too, but you don’t hear about retail executives being traded for sex or fed drugs to work longer shifts or whatever.
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I don’t want to derail, but what’s the K-Pop story you mentioned? Happy to do a Google if you share the names/situation.
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Oh it’s just that the kids who get funneled into K-Pop are basically forced into sex work. They are also forced to get all kinds of cosmetic surgery, usually to make them look more childlike (plus larger breasts for the girls/women), and they’re offered as gifts to visiting rich people and politicians. Apparently it’s a pretty open secret there. I had no idea until I visited and heard people talking about it. They’re pretty much owned by the companies that put out their music, but they do it because most of them are from poorer backgrounds, and they want to help their families. The actual financial deals they get are often pretty raw too, but the forced surgery and prostitution seems like the worst part. They have very little freedom too, and many have “minders” to keep an eye on them.
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Oh god, how dark! Good to know/how awful.
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Oh my god, I had no idea. That’s so horrible.
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A good bloomberg piece on it:
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Whoa! Had never heard of that, so fucking awful!
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Believe it or not, this is actually kinda BAD.
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Here’s the reason he’s doing it, most likely:
- Once the conservatorship ends, the court will have no jurisdiction over the conservatorship anymore. This means that they will not be able to conduct forensic accounting into Britney’s Dad’s mismanagement of funds. This is probably why Britney’s attorney has not yet petitioned the court to end it.
- Britney’s attorney made a statement that Britney’s dad is trying to get out of sworn depositions as they’ve already started investigations into the mismanagement of funds… essentially he’s trying to make getting off with “immunity” a condition of ending the conservatorship
- He also makes settling the 12th accounting - the one disputed by britney’s attorneys where she’s on the hook for $1.4 million of legal fees for her dad to go on a PR tour - a precondition of ending the conservatorship, but he’s been fighting it all along
- He also provided these documents to the MEDIA before he actually filed them to the court… suss
- Britney’s lawyer said - in court documents - Britney’s dad tried to “extort” the conservatorship requesting a settlement in order for him to resign
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Yeah I read that an immediately gave it side eye. I look forward to your thoughts on this. Ha, crossposted!
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