The world is still reeling from Britney Spears’ statement in court on Wednesday. We all suspected/knew that Britney’s situation was bad, but she laid out in plain terms just how awful it’s been for years, and just how much she’s been used and abused by her father, by her family and by every single person with any kind of power or authority over her life. Another reason why this was such a big moment in Britney’s life is because it will likely jump-start a new era in how her conservatorship functions and it might even end her conservatorship entirely. The problem is that Britney’s lawyer, Samuel D. Ingham III, has still not filed papers to end the conservatorship. Britney’s statement came during a hearing to remove Jamie Spears as conservator and have him replaced with Jodi Montgomery permanently. It was clear from Britney’s statement that she simply wants to be done with all of this though. So why hasn’t her lawyer filed to get the conservatorship removed? That’s the question other lawyers are asking:
Before Britney Spears broke her public silence on Wednesday regarding the long-running legal arrangement that has controlled her life, calling it abusive in an urgent and emotional speech, the man appointed to represent her in court for the last 13 years said he had no role in what she was about to say.
“These are entirely her words,” said Samuel D. Ingham III, a lawyer for the singer since 2008, when she was deemed incapable by a judge of hiring her own counsel. When Ms. Spears said this week that, under the arrangement, she had been forced to perform, take debilitating medication and remain on birth control, among other claims, she drew attention to the question of whether Mr. Ingham had done enough to educate and support his client, as the law requires.
“I didn’t know I could petition the conservatorship to be ended,” Ms. Spears, 39, told the judge during a live feed of the hearing. “I’m sorry for my ignorance, but I honestly didn’t know that.” She added, “My attorney says I can’t — it’s not good, I can’t let the public know anything they did to me. He told me I should keep it to myself, really,” the singer said.
Mr. Ingham did not respond to requests to comment Thursday on how his client’s portrayal of him in court corresponded with his own view of his counsel, and it is unknown what discussions the two have had about whether or how Ms. Spears could ask to end the conservatorship. But the dramatic courtroom moment illustrated their frayed relationship, and the inherent conflicts that exist in a conservatorship system in which Ms. Spears has been forced to pay a lawyer she did not choose for herself.
“It’s certainly troubling that this has gone on for so long if she has wanted to end it,” said Rebekah Diller, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law and an expert on guardianships. “It’s hard to know exactly what’s gone on behind closed doors, but in general one would hope she has been told that throughout the years, because it’s a critical right she was entitled to.”
Last year, Mr. Ingham began seeking substantial changes in the conservatorship, including some steps toward Ms. Spears’s requested removal of her father as conservator. And in her remarks, Ms. Spears noted that she and Mr. Ingham had developed a closer relationship of late, speaking about three times per week. Still, Ms. Spears said on Wednesday, she wished to hire her own lawyer. After Ms. Spears’s remarks, Mr. Ingham said he would step aside if asked, but the current judge in the case, Brenda Penny, did not lay out in detail what the next steps would be to address Ms. Spears’s concerns about the conservatorship or her legal representation.
Sarah J. Wentz, a trusts and estate lawyer for Fox Rothschild, said that given what Ms. Spears presented in court, she “can’t even fathom” why Mr. Ingham had not been prompted to file to terminate the conservatorship. “If he knew what she was saying, he should have been prepared,” she said. “If he did what a lawyer is supposed to do, he would have met and found out she wants to terminate.”
My guess is that Ingham knows he’s being paid by Jamie Spears and not, technically, Britney Spears. But still, Ingham has a sworn duty to represent his client and his client’s interests. What he did and didn’t do for Britney is not only negligent, it could conceivably get him disbarred, especially if he failed to inform his client about her fundamental human rights. There is absolutely no reason why Ingham did not file a swarm of legal notices when Britney was like “they’re forcing me to keep my IUD in” or “they put me on lithium as punishment for not wanting to do the Vegas residency.” There is no excuse for Britney being so uninformed of her rights.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
It’s not negligence, it’s breach of fiduciary duty. It’s worse.
Yep. It literally doesn’t matter who is paying him (with Britney’s money, but I digress), your loyalty as an attorney is to your client. Pretty clear that this guy & Jamie were just cashing their checks & counting on Britney being silenced.
He had no interest in telling her about her right to file for termination of the conservatorship because that meant no more paychecks for him. I don’t know what his usual fees are, but someone downthread mentioned that he was getting $10,000 a week from Britney.
How about the part where he “advises” her that she shouldn’t say anything:
“My attorney says I can’t — it’s not good, I can’t let the public know anything they did to me. He told me I should keep it to myself, really,” the singer said.
If you hear the whole testimony, he also told her that if she said anything bad about the clinic that she was forced into, they would sue her. How can someone not sue HIM for manipulating her like that?
Who would sue him, though? It’s the ultimate Catch-22. Everyone (including her lawyer) is abusing her, but she can’t sue any of them unless her chief abuser (Daddy) agrees to it. It’s horrific.
For him not to have filed to remove the conservatorship already is disturbing. He’s a lawyer in this specialized area – of course he knew that and she has to have been asking him this for at least 2 years since she withdrew from the second residency and they threw her in inpatient treatment (read jail)
The judge telling him how on record wasn’t b/c he didn’t know – it was a legal maneuverer to get it on record and trap him via negligence/ineffectual counsel because the public heard this hearing.
Apparently he’s been getting paid to the tune of 10K a week for his “services” to Britney according to the latest court docs. Everyone thought it was a crazy conspiracy that the lawyers were all in it with her father – well turns out it wasn’t.
She has been misrepresented by this attorney who is really working for her father, it’s that simple and disgusting isn’t it? She needs a new attorney who has nothing to do with the family and move forward with having her conservatorship removed. I’m still so shocked by what has been happening to Britney. What a disgrace.
That’s my thought is that he thinks his client is her father – they are in collusion. The judge needs to intervene and remove him – can she do that? Replace him with a lawyer that will ACTUALLY represent Britney.
He was absolutely colluding with her dad to make sure the conservatorship didn’t end. The NYT article included excerpts from the 2014 closed hearing (7 YEARS ago) when she asked first asked for the conservatorship to be terminated:
“According to the court records, Mr. Ingham noted that Ms. Spears had been “hostile, aggressive, and extremely threatening toward the conservatorship,” especially in the presence of her boyfriend at the time, David Lucado. Mr. Ingham repeatedly mentioned Ms. Spears’s use of expletives while in Mr. Lucado’s presence, including once around her children. “As an officer of the court, that was very troublesome to me,” Mr. Ingham said, noting that he had informed lawyers for Mr. Spears, who oversaw the singer’s visitation with her two sons, “so he can take whatever steps are necessary to protect the children.”
HER lawyer “informed” her father’s lawyers that she swore ONCE around her kids. If that’s grounds for a conservatorship, then every parent in the U.S. would be under one. And of COURSE she is/was hostile about it — her dad controls every single aspect of her life.
Bingo.
This case is bringing back so many bad memories. My uncle’s wife (I refuse to call her aunt) got herself appointed as my grandmother’s conservator when my uncle died. She colluded with my grandmother’s court appointed attorney to bilk grandma’s estate of almost a million dollars. Took my parents 7 years of court battles to get them both removed.
If my grandmother hadn’t had a son who cared, those two would’ve spent every single spent my grandmother had and left her to die penniless. Conservatorship abuse is rampant, it’s tragic, and it can be very hard to stop it.
I really hope Britney is freed from these vultures.
If a petition is not filed by her lawyer then nothing will change. Every day that goes by that a petition is not filed is absolutely horrifying. She said on record she is being abused. Social services? The FBI? Can anyone be sent in to help her file this d*mn petition if her lawyer won’t?
Yeah, I’m asking the same questions – how any of this can actually be legal and is anybody doing anything about it?
Jais, this is what I am wondering. Why is this being allowed to continue when we have Britney on record stating she is being manipulated and abused? Where is Adult Protective Services to step in and investigate?
I hope he answers for any possible negligence.
Does anyone know when the conservatorship verdict is due? I hope she gets her freedom
All I could think of when I read her statement was “this would never, ever, ever happen with a male pop star.”
So true.
That’s for sure.
Britney has been exploited by her family since she was a child, and abused and exploited by men through all her life.
I have always had the feeling she wanted to retire and live a quite life, but I also thought maybe she likes to perform, so a while ago I watched on YouTube some of the footage of her Vegas residency, and she seemed so lethargic, now I know it’s because she was drugged and forced to perform.
I hope she can get out of this, and have the life she wants. And get rid of her awful family.
For sure. Look at all of them who went off the rails. At most they’re shuffled away to rehab for a couple of weeks. This poor woman has had a stranglehold put on her entire life, every decision.
I’ve seen a lot of people saying this but we have seen abuse of male stars who’ve had mental health/aging issues. This particular guy was also Casey Kasem’s and Sumner Redstone’s lawyer. Also it’s come out that Stan Lee may have also been suffered elder abuse at the hands of his people. Michael Jackson struggled with being mishandled and manipulated towards the end of his life. While Britney being a woman is certainly a factor in her treatment with her body being controlled, this, to me, is just as much about how mentally ill people get treated than about sexism.
Good point. But it’s also noteworthy that all but one of the men that you mentioned were elderly. The elderly, like women, are also not listened to. Add mental illness and their credibility is questioned even more. I know with Sumner Redstone and Casey Kasem, that there was a lot of fighting to gain control going on between “interested“ relatives, but were they being abused? I know Stan Lee was and Michael Jackson was being fed drugs.
Wow, this mf needs to be disbarred and arrested.
This whole story has been haunting and just so disturbing on every level possible. This poor woman!! Is there no one she can turn to for support??? She doesn’t have one safe person who has her back – what a god-awful place to be in. How can the world get this dark and twisted even when you seemingly have everything imaginable. I’m still dumbfounded and feel so much sadness and anger for her.
The ACLU has publicly offered support. I hope she takes them up on it. For those of us who live with mental illness, this case is terrifying, and my heart breaks for what has been done to her.
I hope she has access to information about this offer or that they try to contact her personally, otherwise…
But if she can’t legally hire another attorney or agree to be represented by an attorney (b/c she is “incompetent”) then they can’t help her either. This is insane.
We need to complain to the Ca State Bar or something because this stinks to high Heaven.
The therapist that put or on lithium needs to be checked out too! How do you just take the word of others to change medication without evaluating and consulting the actual patient!?
Dr Benson died in 2019. It’s worth reading the transcript. In her own words when he died “I got on my knees and thanked God.”. He deserved a worse fate.
I think she said he died.
Courtney Love apparently was treated by the same team. Her twitter had a good chunk of receipts about it yesterday. Dr Benson was definitely in her life and she said he was awful too. I wonder will more come out of the woodwork as Britney starts to talk. She wasn’t the first they did this to.
Courtney is so problematic to say the least, but I actually believe her that this guy was awful if he was treating her too.
Do you remember all those shady doctors who fueled MJ and Prince addictions instead of threating them? I think if you have enough money you can buy whoever you want.
yes, and if you have enough money and a conservatorship, whoever is your conservator can pick whoever they want!
“These are entirely her words” – This from the person whose job is to explain the weight of those words to her. And to take action for her, based on those words.
I’m trying to imagine going to court without any knowledge of what your client wants to say to the judge. Without any prep for what your client wants to do. The court doesn’t care who cuts your checks. Your responsibility is to your client. Unfortunately, while her lawyer might be suspended or reprimanded, if this is a first complaint he’s unlikely to be disbarred.
I hope she sues his ass into the ground.
I’m so sad for her, to think that nobody has her back not even, especially not, her family must be a living hell. I really hope they will grant her freedom and punish her lawyer too (what a scumbag).
Free Britney and jail all the scumbags who profited off her.
I’m so glad Britney finally got a chance to speak. That woman has been through hell.
I have bipolar 2 disorder, like Britney, and I can’t imagine having my entire life, body, and finances controlled because of it. I take my medication every day and I function just fine. Britney obviously takes her meds and goes to therapy and does everything right…and still she’s treated like a severely disabled person who can’t make her own decisions.
Mariah Carey has bipolar disorder and had a public breakdown, but no one put her in a conservatorship. Catherine Zeta Jones has bipolar 2 and no one’s telling her what to do with her body. I know people who have been involuntarily committed before and have NEVER had to deal with the kind of crap that Britney has been dealing with.
My heart just breaks for her. No one deserves this. Conservatorships are supposed to be implemented to HELP people and ensure they get good care. It’s not supposed to be enslavement.
This is not my area of practice but why can’t the judge sua sponge terminate the conservatorship? Judges is civil commercial cases do shit no one asked for all the time because they think it’s what is best.
Exactly, judges have wide latitude and she could certainly suspend it, or remove Jamie pending a review at the very least. I hope the jig is up on this terrible situation and that her attorney is removed and replaced with an expert that Britney has a hand in choosing, and that Jamie is summarily dismissed. Because of the structure of conservatorships (in general and in CA specifically) I don’t know if the “providers” who “cared” for her against her will can be held liable, but certainly the move to lithium without a clinical reason and the forced inpatient “treatment” without proof of need are chilling. The refusal to remove her IUD is disgusting.
Poor Britney. She absolutely deserves to set her own course and make her own choices. If she wants to just buy a house with a piece of land and have dogs, horses, and kids, she should absolutely have that. If she never gets on stage again because she doesn’t want to, perfect. She can and should do whatever makes her happy and enjoy the fruits of her 35+ years in the spotlight in whatever way is meaningful to her. And have whatever GD kitchen cabinets she wants.
Behind each egregious crime is the scumbag lawyer who enabled it.
Piece of Me. How apt?
Piece of Me. How apt!
Is she ok now though? Is she safe? Surely these a**holes are going to “punish” her for coming out with it all? What is being done? Anyone know the next steps?
this was the first thing I thought when I,was done rwading her testimony to the judge. He ought to be disbarrwd!!!. Malpractice if you ask me.
There are some actively horrible parents out there. I do not those are horrible 8nspite of trying or because ignorance. But willfully and intentionally so like her father. My god! smfh.
@daisyduck: she’s on her way to Hawaii with her boyfriend. They are posting selfies. She appears to be ok.
The way that @Redsnapper reviewed the funeral footage like the Zapruder film? I listened to the entire 42 min audio 2x, and just Brit 23 min 2x and no one can comment on this issue until hearing the audio themselves.
That said: @Kaiser nailed it with the title and the fact that there were oh, 5 or so parties represented by counsel, 3 of whom get paid to rep Britney in some way and the only one that spoke on Brit’s behalf was her mother’s attorney? Holy F@vk
IAAL and here is a voice analysis;
Atty for Pais: strident and scared. Spoke on behalf of privacy of Brit’s kids? Who she doesn’t represent (ha- like it practiced for this hearing right?)
Atty for Britney: Joking trying to stay out of jail. He is using this manner with Britney and she said that they have established a relationship lately which is funny bc he knew this day was coming, so he is being all folksy with her bc she is a good person and she never wishes anyone ill. She won’t include him when she said everyone should go to jail, but he should go to jail.
Judge: useless. F@cking useless , sounded more like a fan than someone that could save this woman’s life. Britney made a point to say that she told some of this to the same woman years ago and she asked her “ m’am I Would like to know where your head is at right now” And there are a lot of good judges that would’ve acknowledged that, tried to respond in to that statement, but this judge just blew that off which I thought was a really mean thing to do . She said Britney was “brave” no she is pissed-you heard her, right? She was ready to wrap up the whole thing when….
Lynn Spears’ atty: angrily spoke up. He doesn’t represent Britney or the conservatorship, and he asked “judge are you going to do some thing and listen to her this time because she’s asked you to do something before” Which I thought was a really good question and I think the judge his response to this was let’s take a break.
Britney should be free to blow $$$ on IVF and do whatever she wants with men that aren’t good enough for her, like everyone else in show biz. Loved how she blew the whistle on Miley- and said shit about Paris. Britney is an icon, even in a hearing 🙂
LOVE your observations! I listened to the 42 minute audio as well, but I don’t get your @redsnapper/zapruder reference?
@GollyGee @Redsnapper analyzed P.Philip’s funeral footage here on Celebitchy. It’s kind of a “thing”.
So I did an audio analysis, full of typos, of this hearing. I am still floored that attorneys in Cali have to pass the bar (a HARD one), pass the ethics exam, pay bar dues, and then can charge extraordinary fees to waltz into court and violate every rule of civ pro, ethics, you name it, and this includes the judge, and just call it a day.
They could just skip the whole law school part out there and have skilled paralegals handle conservatorships. They’d do a better job.
Thanks for explaining the reference, ElleE.
I’ve never really thought about voice analysis as a tool comparable to reading body language. But what you noted really nailed the sub text of those who spoke.
I think there are probably plenty of ethical lawyers, but the ones that make the news often have skeletons – so to speak — that are quickly discovered and reported on. There are also those who are just in it for the money. And as for judges, again, there are good ones but there are also those who become corrupted by the power that they wield. We shall see how this judge proceeds.
@M, if you go to YouTube and listen to the 42 minute audio of Britney‘s hearing, it also has the lawyers and judge talking. ElleE provided an analysis of the tone that accompanied the words that they spoke.
can someone translate this
You should write letters to the CA bar to lodge a complaint and request a review. This is something you can do.
Rachel, Jack and Ashley too in black mirror
it’s been a very difficult but cathartic week reading everything about britney. what she’s gone through is unquestionably 1000 times worse than what i have, but… i’ve been forced into a conservatorship before without my consent.
up until now i had been avoiding reading a lot of news about her because i’m a big fan of her, i think she deserves happiness, and from my own experience i could tell there was something similar but on a much worse, much bigger scale going on there. so to see this dialogue about her and #freebritney keep going on, was very triggering.
last time i tried to read news about brit and discussion of her conservatorship i LITERALLY had an anxiety attack that took me hours to calm down from, but this week has been cathartic. and also heartbreaking. i hope this opens up the conversation about conservatorships in general more?
so, so many people are abused through them (i wasn’t “abused” in the way britney was but having many of your adult rights taken away without even being seen in court or evaluated in *any* way– yep, that’s possible.
many older folks in homes, etc, are targeted and abused and stolen from by conservators they have never even met before.
in my case i wasn’t able to go to the court hearing due to being in hospital and i know it was filed at a time when it was KNOWN i wouldnt be able to go to court. i got subpoena’d in a f–king hospital bed)
writing this comment a day late when nobody’s going to see it because i kept finding it hard to find the words. like i said my trauma and distress caused by mine was probably only a fraction of britney’s.
and– in the end i found out i could file motion to end it, but when i was put under conservatorship, i *literally* didn’t even know what one was.
I’m so sorry to hear about what happened to you, observer! I hope your healing continues. Have you ever tried EMT or somatic touch? They can be very helpful in releasing trauma that the body is holding. Not sure about EMT, but somatic touch is something that you can do on your own so you’re not dependent on anyone else for it.