Date set for Britney Spears’ next conservatorship hearing – but her fight for freedom could last years
Britney Spears. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
Britney Spears’ conservatorship battle will continue in court in just over two weeks, but it seems unlikely she will win her freedom in the immediate future.
The star gave a raw, emotional speech to an LA judge on Wednesday (23 June), pleading for an end to the conservatorship that has governed her life for the last 13 years and that she says is highly “abusive”.
Spears said she wanted an immediate end to the arrangement, which gives power over her personal and business decision to individuals including her father, Jamie Spears, as well as a corporate fiduciary service.
The next court hearing in Britney Spears’ conservatorship case is scheduled for 14 July.
It remains unclear how the case will proceed following Spears’ explosive testimony.
However legal experts have said that in order for the conservatorship to end, certain steps must first be taken.
“She still has to file to end the conservatorship,” chief legal analyst for ABC News, Dan Abrams, told Good Morning America this week.
“So that’s legal step number one here.”
Spears told the judge that she hadn’t been made aware that she could petition for the arrangement to be dissolved, and that she wanted it to end without any further evaluation. Abrams called this “a really big deal” if it’s true.
“I don’t think I owe anyone, to be evaluated,” she said. “I’ve done more than enough. I don’t feel like I should even be in the room with anyone to offend me by trying to question my capacity of intelligence.”
However, Abrams said the “faster way” to make the conservatorship come to an end would be to comply with any evaluations.
Speaking about her testimony, he added: “I think [the judge is] going to come out of this saying, ‘That was real. That was her. That wasn’t written by somebody else. That’s what she really thinks.'”
“There’s going to be investigators and there’s going to be doctors and there’s going to be reports, but I think that this account from her is really going to matter to the judge.”
Scott Rahn, an LA-based attorney and conservatorships expert, told the Guardian the process could be a long one, potentially lasting years.
By all accounts, it will depend on decisions made by Spears, the court and the conservatorship – including whether Spears is allowed to hire her own lawyer, and whether her father challenges her wish to end the arrangement.
Though Britney Spears’ words were heard across the world this week, the next hearing is likely to be kept private.
Spears’ court-appointed lawyer Samuel D. Ingham III said during the hearing: “Since she has made the remarks that she was able to make on the public record today, she believes that it would be advisable for proceedings to be sealed going forward.”
It was suggested to Spears at this week’s hearing that she might prefer privacy, however she responded: “They’ve done a good job at exploiting my life and the way that they’ve done my life, so I feel like it should be an open court hearing and they should listen and hear what I have to say.”
Britney Spears ‘sorry for pretending to be OK’
Britney Spears has been under a conservatorship since 2008, with her father Jamie Spears holding varying degrees of control over her affairs in that time.
In her emotional 23-minute address, Spears told the courtroom her father “loved the control to hurt his own daughter 100,000 per cent.”
“I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive,” she added. “I don’t feel like I can live a full life.”
The day after her court appearance, the star took to Instagram to tell her fans: “I apologise for pretending like I’ve been OK the past two years … I did it because of my pride and I was embarassed to share what happened to me.”
Many have announced their support for her since the hearing. Britney’s ex-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, tweeted: “We should all be supporting Britney at this time.”
Superstars Mariah Carey, Halsey, Vera Wang, Missy Elliott and Courtney Love all took to Twitter to express their support for Britney.
