Britney Spears lawyer plans to file a petition to make the singers care manager and temporary conservator Jodi Montgomery permanent, the singers court-appointed lawyer, Samuel D. Ingham III, said during a brief court hearing Wednesday. Spears’ father Jamie stepped down from his role as the star’s personal conservator in 2019 due to health issues and a professional conservator, Ms Montgomery, temporarily replaced him.
The petition, which will be addressed during an April 27 hearing, will request to have Ms Montgomery appointed to the permanent conservator of Spears’ person while it remained unclear if the role would also fulfil the needs of her estate.
Currently, both Jamie and Bessemer Trust oversee Spears’ estate while Montgomery acts as Spears’ “care manager”, Fox News reports.
Meanwhile, Wednesday’s accounting hearing was set to see the pop superstar’s co-conservators of her estate — Jamie and new party Bessemer Trust — detail Spears’ finances to the court.
However, the hearing was continued to the April date as the parties work to determine an accurate list of assets and holdings and where finances were spent.
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David Glass, a certified family law lawyer and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology — who is not involved in the matter — told Fox News that “continuances are pretty standard in accounting hearings” as “both sides are still trying to get the assets and counts worked out.”
Mr Glass also weighed in on Wednesday’s developments surrounding the petition, which he says could be the first real step to dissolving the collective conservatorship altogether.
“One thing interesting was that Samuel Ingham, the court-appointed counsel for Britney, announced he will be filing a petition to have Jodi Montgomery appointed as the conservator of the person,” Mr Glass told Fox News minutes after the hearing concluded.
“Right now, the conservators of the estate and the financial matters are Jamie and this Bessemer Trust. And so now he’s asking for this Jodi Montgomery to become the permanent conservator of the person.”
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“A lot of the hubbub around this has been, ‘How come [Britney] hasn’t asked to have the conservator removed?’ This might be the first step towards that, at least moving to a personal conservator who she thinks will be more friendly to her, more favourable to her.”
Furthermore, according to Mr Glass, the move to essentially promote Ms Montgomery appears to be the most sensible action considering the fact she’s currently Spears’ care manager, a position that is one step below the conservator.
“The care person collects information on the conservative’s health and their medical records and what their doctors say and then summarises that information and gives it to the conservatory. So in that sense, it’s a step up for Ms. Montgomery.”
Jamie will have an opportunity to object to the petition to appoint Ms Montgomery as the primary conservator, Mr Glass added.
“Jamie will be required to file any opposition he might have as to why he thinks he should not be removed as the conservator of the person [Britney] and then the court can decide what it needs to do if it needs more information,” Mr Glass said.
“At that point, the court can set an evidentiary trial where people testify or if the court feels it has enough information, it can actually rule at that point,” he continued. “It’s rare that a probate court will rule just based on the papers. They almost always go to some sort of evidentiary objection, evidentiary hearing.”
The continuance of the case Wednesday was requested by Vivian Thoreen, the acting lawyer for Jamie. Although she did not provide a reason for the request, both parties agreed to recess until April 27.
Jamie has been the target of the #FreeBritney movement since renewed attention was placed on the singer following the release of the documentary Framing Britney Spears. Currently, the conservatorship gives Jamie control of the star’s estate. However, Spears recently began taking legal steps to reclaim agency over her life.
Reps and attorneys for Spears did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
This article originally appeared on Fox News and was reproduced with permission
Britney Spears’ lawyer to file petition to make singer’s temporary conservator permanent
