As part of a new side series on the podcast, I will be discussing celebrity divorces and other legal issues in the news. Today I’m discussing the #FreeBritney movement and conservatorships with fellow family law attorney Corttany Brooks. Let the celebrity gossip and controversy begin!
For Britney, It started as a temporary, emergency conservatorship in February 2008. She checked herself into a psychiatric hospital and it has been reported that she had gone for 5 days straight without sleep before she was admitted. Lack of sleep can cause even the most mentally healthy person to have a breakdown. Remember the scene in 2008. The paparazzi were constantly in her face and trying to provoke her because they could get $1 million dollars for one of these “crazed” photos of Britney. This was right at the time she was going through her divorce, and her husband was trying to get full custody of their children--she had 2 young children. Divorce is literally one of the hardest and most personal things you can go through in life, and she was having to be hounded constantly by reporters and photographers.
She probably had postpartum depression, undiagnosed anxiety and depression, but she wasn’t getting any help or support and was just labeled “crazy.”
A conservatorship, aka a guardianship, is a legal mechanism set up for those unable to manage their affairs, and can be set up over the body and/or over the estate (financial). It’s most common for a family member (usually parents) to be appointed to conservator. Temporary guardianships can be fairly long-term. They usually continue on until the conservatee chooses to challenge it by filing a motion to remove it and then it’s removed, unless the conservator doesn’t agree, and then the burden of proof is on the conservator to make a case for why the conservatee may not be able to oversee their physical/financial life still.
So what happened here in Britney’s case when the Judge ruled in October 2008 for the conservatorship to be made permanent? We don’t know exactly, but there would have been 2 possibilities when the court was determining whether the temporary conservatorship would end, or become a permanent conservatorship (listen to episode for full details)
Why is Britney Spears, someone worth over $60 million, who can work and provide for herself and others, on a permanent conservatorship? She has been open to keeping some sort of management over her finances, but she is seeking to abolish the part over her body.
Most cases of permanent physical conservatorships are put in place when a person is so physically unable to take care of themselves that they need someone advocating for them as far as medical procedures and health for the unforseeable future. People who have been cripled in accidents or were born with severe medical conditions. For Britney Spears to have a permanent conservatorship over her body just doesn’t make legal sense and doesn’t seem to have precedent and is concerning if this becomes the precedent. Why aren’t there limits on lengths of conservatorships, especially considering how many Americans suffer with depression and anxiety.
Her driver’s license had been taken away (which just got reinstated), she couldn’t choose or change her own therapists, she couldn’t get her hair or nails done, couldn’t choose her own attorney (until just this month). She should be able to choose her own assessor as a private witness and then submit herself to these assessments and submit results to court. That is probably the best way out of this.
What are Jamie’s intentions? He is being paid over $200,000/year just for being her conservator. There is conflict of interest here. Britney’s money pays for her attorney and his attorney.