Britney Spears’ court-appointed attorney filed his request to resigned from her contentious conservatorship on Monday, a presumed response to her impassioned June 23 testimony. The pop legend’s mother, Lynne Spears, is now petitioning the court to be granted the authority to hire private counsel, noting the stark difference in her daughter’s wellness compared to the conservatorship’s 2008 inception.
According to her petition filed July 6 in Los Angeles Superior Court, the 66-year-old is seeking permission to hire an attorney of her daughter’s selection on her behalf. The court filing obtained by PEOPLE read, “This Motion to Appoint Private Counsel is of the utmost importance and may very well impact each and every of the other requests submitted by Conservatee in her live testimony at the June 23 Hearing.” Presumably referencing the legal suspicions looming over the conservatorship, the filing continued, “It is self-evident that before the Court addresses, for example, the termination of the conservatorship, Conservatee must be allowed to consult with counsel of her choosing.”
At her first-ever testimony, the “Toxic” songstress revealed her personal accounts of the conservatorship, fraught with abuse. She also described how her court-appointed lawyer, Samuel D. Ingham III, never informed her of her ability to petition to end the conservatorship. Moreover, her bombshell allegations cited that Ingham feared for her to come forward and even cited that he instructed her “to keep it to myself.”
The court documents specifically mentioned the admirable transition of the pop star’s mental state as the conservatorship was instated 13 years ago. “Her capacity is certainly different today than it was in 2008, and Conservatee should no longer be held to the 2008 standard, whereby she was found to ‘not have the capacity to retain counsel,'” the filing read. During her court appearance, the 39-year-old voiced the gruesome torment of nonconsensual labor, drug abuse and reproductive control (as she’s been inhibited from removing her IUD) that the conservatorship has inflicted onto her.
Jodi Montgomery, Britney’s personal conservator, also filed a request to the court for an emergency hearing on July 8 to also discuss a privately-hired attorney. Montgomery has also requested an increase in security as the explosive aftermath of June 23 hearing has seen an “elevated level of threatening messages” to both her and her conservatee. The court documents read, “There are grave concerns regarding the safety of the Conservator of the Person and counsel involved in this highly-publicized matter arising from a drastic increase in threats of violence and death since the June 23, 2021 unsealed status hearing.”
In the forthcoming July 14 hearing, the court will decline or approve Lynne’s request and the resignations of Ingham and Bessemer Trust, the financial firm appointed as co-conservator of Britney’s estate.
