Britney Spears' dad wants legal fees paid by estate, her lawyer fights back: 'Abomination'
And you thought the Britney Spears conservatorship battle was over? It is – except for the shouting. And there is a lot of lawyerly shouting.
Attorneys for the pop star and father Jamie Spears, her former conservator, continue to mud-wrestle in legal documents and in public: The latest conflict concerns whether Jamie's legal fees will be covered while he's winding down his fiduciary duties over the just-ended conservatorship of his daughter that he supervised or co-supervised for more than 13 years.
In legal documents filed last week, Jamie Spears says he's entitled to have his legal fees paid by his daughter's near-$60 million estate "to ensure the Conservatorship can be wound up quickly and efficiently to allow Britney to take control of her life as she and Jamie desire," according to Jamie's 21-page petition to the court.
His lawyer, Alex Weingarten, also filed a 600-page brief in support of Jamie's petition. It is by far the largest document in Britney Spears' voluminous public court file for her conservatorship.
Unsurprisingly, Britney's lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, who has been publicly assailing Jamie since Britney was allowed to hire him this summer, issued a statement obtained by USA TODAY calling Jamie's argument "shameful" and an "abomination."
Britney is never going to pay her father again, Rosengart suggested in his statement.
"The request is shameful," Rosengart's statement said. "Mr. Spears reaped many millions of dollars from Britney as a conservator, while paying his lawyers millions more, all from Britney’s work and hard-earned money."
Now that Britney's conservatorship is terminated and Jamie was suspended "ignominiously," per Rosengart, the lawyer declared Jamie's petition "is not only legally meritless, it is an abomination. Britney poignantly testified about the pain her father caused her and this only adds to it. This is not what a father who loves his daughter does."
Rosengart's statement does not address the legal arguments Jamie makes in his petition, such as it's only fair that his on-going legal fees be covered as a matter of equity and state law.
"California requires compensation of conservators for the attorneys’ fees they incur for the protection of conservatees," Jamie's brief says, as filed by Weingarten.
"Compensation for the conservators’ attorneys’ fees is necessary to protect conservatees and payment of attorneys’ fees from the conservatee’s assets cannot be blocked simply by a conservatee’s objection," Jamie's brief continues.
Jamie argues his fiduciary obligations did not end with his suspension as conservator, detailing a list of specific duties he still has to fulfill, including transitioning administration of Britney’s estate and assembling more than 13 years of records relating to the estate.
More: Britney Spears is free. What going 'from no control to full control' entails, according to experts
"Attorneys’ fees to carry out these fiduciary duties are chargeable to the estate he has administered for the past 13 years," Weingarten, Jamie's lawyer, argued. His suspension as conservator "does not excuse him from participating in the proceedings to wind up the conservatorship or negate the requirement that his attorneys’ fees must be paid from Britney’s estate."
Britney's mother Lynne Spears, who was not part of the conservatorship, also petitioned the court in November to have her daughter's estate pay her legal fees after she hired lawyers in 2019 to join the battle to remove her ex-husband from the conservatorship.
Notwithstanding the colorful language employed by the lawyers, it will be up to Judge Brenda Penny to decide who gets paid and how much.
Jamie Spears, 69, has been playing defense since June, when Britney, 40, delivered impassioned testimony via phone at a hearing in Los Angeles probate court, accusing her father of conservatorship "abuse," claiming he ruined her life and career and violated her privacy and civil rights for more than a decade.
Jamie Spears and his lawyers have strenuously denied her claims.
In early September Jamie, too, petitioned the court for the conservatorship to end as soon as possible. By November, Judge Penny concluded the conservatorship had outlived its original purpose, first declared in 2008 after Britney underwent a mental-health breakdown in public in late 2007.
Meanwhile, Rosengart vowed to investigate Jamie Spears' spending and administration of his daughter's conservatorship.
The next hearing in the case is set for Jan. 19.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Britney Spears' wants fees paid by estate, lawyer fights back
