Britney Spears’ father agrees to step down as financial conservator

The father of pop singer Britney Spears has agreed to step down as her financial conservator.

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Jamie Spears filed his response to Britney Spears’ petition for his suspension with the Los Angeles Superior Court, announcing his decision to step down, Variety reported. Jamie Spears’ attorney said that there is no reason to remove him and cited the “public battle with his daughter” as his reason for stepping down from the position he has held since 2008.

There is no timetable for when Jamie Spears will step down from his position.

“When these matters are resolved, Mr. Spears will be in a position to step aside,” NBC News reported, citing court documents. “But there are no urgent circumstances justifying Mr. Spears’ immediate suspension.”

“There are, in fact, no actual grounds for suspending or removing Mr. Spears as the conservator of the estate under Probate Code section 2650,” Variety reported, also citing court documents. “And it is highly debatable whether a change in conservator at this time would be in Ms. Spears’ best interests.

“Nevertheless, even as Mr. Spears is the unremitting target of unjustified attacks, he does not believe that a public battle with his daughter over his continuing service as her conservator would be in her best interests,” the filing document stated. “So even though he must contest this unjustified Petition for his removal, Mr. Spears intends to work with the Court and his daughter’s new attorney to prepare for an orderly transition to a new conservator. As the court has likely surmised, before Ms. Spears’ new attorney arrived, Mr. Spears had already been working on such a transition with Ms. Spears’ former court-appointed counsel, Sam Ingham.”

Britney Spears’ current attorney, Mathew Rosengart, issued a statement, saying he was “pleased” by Jamie Spears’ decision.

>> Britney Spears’ father fights singer’s effort to remove him as conservator

“I announced in court on July 14 that, after 13 years of the status quo, it was time for Mr. Spears to be suspended or removed as conservator and that my firm and I would move aggressively and expeditiously for that outcome,” Rosengart said. “Twelve days later, my firm filed a Petition for Mr. Spears’s suspension and removal based on strong, insurmountable legal grounds, which were unequivocally supported by the law and all parties involved, including Jodi Montgomery, Britney Spears, and her medical team.

“We are pleased that Mr. Spears and his lawyer have today conceded in a filing that he must be removed. It is vindication for Britney. We are disappointed, however, by their ongoing shameful and reprehensible attacks on Ms. Spears and others,” Rosengart added. “We look forward to continuing our vigorous investigation into the conduct of Mr. Spears, and others, over the past 13 years, while he reaped millions of dollars from his daughter’s estate, and I look forward to taking Mr. Spears’ sworn deposition in the near future.

“In the interim, rather than making false accusations and taking cheap shots at his own daughter, Mr. Spears should remain silent and step aside immediately.”

On Monday, Los Angeles Superior Judge Brenda Penny rejected the petition to advance the hearing to remove Jamie Spears as conservator in a new filing, NBC News reported.

Last week, Jamie Spears and his daughter continued their battle over finances. Jamie Spears defended his actions in a court filing, The New York Times reported. His legal brief was a reaction to her daughter’s request to expedite the hearing to remove him from his conservatorship status.

Thursday’s move was first reported by TMZ.

Jamie Spears had agreed to a fast track for another hearing but objected to the effort to remove him, according to the Times.

In that court filing, Jamie Spears’ attorney, Vivian Lee Thoreen, wrote that he would agree to move the hearing date from Sept. 29 to as early as Aug. 23, according to the newspaper. But she fiercely opposed the assertion by Britney Spears’ attorney, Mathew Rosengart, that Jamie Spears needed to be swiftly removed from the arrangement.

Last month, a California judge granted Britney Spears’ request to hire her own lawyer in her conservatorship battle. At the time, Spears also said she wanted to bring formal charges against her father over his role in the conservatorship.

>> Britney Spears can hire own lawyer, judge rules

Jamie Spears has alleged that his daughter’s personal conservator, Jodi Montgomery, told him in a telephone call that his daughter is “mentally sick” and wanted to place her under a 5150 psychiatric hold, Variety reported.

Montgomery denied the statement, according to the website.

According to Jamie Spears’ filing, his daughter’s former court-appointed attorney, Samuel D. Ingham III, and Montgomery were responsible for admitting Britney Spears into a mental health facility in 2019, the Times reported. Britney Spears has said she felt forced into going to the facility, according to the newspaper.

Montgomery’s attorney, Lauriann Wright, said when Britney Spears entered the facility, Montgomery was a case manager of the conservatorship and hired by Jamie Spears. Wright argued that Montgomery did not have the authority to admit the singer into the facility, the Times reported.

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