Britney Spears hearing: Jamie Spears suspended as conservator
Judge has ruled to suspend Jamie Spears from his role with immediate effect
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Your support makes all the difference.A judge has ruled to suspend Britney Spears’s father from the conservatorship that has controlled her business and personal affairs for 13 years.
On Wednesday 29 September, Judge Brenda Penny was pressed to make major decisions on whether to end the conservatorship at Los Angeles Superior Court, or – if the system remains in place – whether her father James Spears should remain as his daughter’s conservator.
Judge Penny ruled to suspend Jamie from the conservatorship. Ahead of the hearing, Spears said she wanted the conservatorship to end and for her father to no longer oversee it.
Her attorney Mathew Rosengart, whom Spears was allowed to hire in July, has aggressively pushed for Jamie Spears to be removed from the conservatorship. Rosengart previously requested an emergency hearing on the issue, but Penny ruled that it could wait until this week.
A further hearing will take place later this year to petition to end the conservatorship completely.
The liveblog is now closed.
Supporters of Britney Spears are demonstrating in London this Wednesday (29 September) ahead of the court hearing:
Britney Spears’s fiancé Sam Asghari has spoken of the “bad aftertaste” left by the many documentaries about the singer.
Shortly before the surprise new programme Controlling Britney Spears, was released on Friday 24 September, Asghari shared his thoughts about filmmakers trying to depict Spears’s ongoing legal battle over her conservatorship.
“I hope the profit from these docs go towards fighting against injustice #freebritney,” he wrote in the comments section of Netflix’s Instagram page, on a post promoting its new documentary, Britney vs Spears.
Read more of Asghari’s comments in the story below:
Sam Asghari says Britney Spears documentaries have left ‘bad aftertaste’
Here is a full timeline of the conservatorship, from January 2007 to today:
A comprehensive timeline of Britney Spears’s conservatorship
Mathew Rosengart, the attorney hired by Britney Spears over the summer shortly after she was granted permission to pick her own counsel, is expected to be present during today’s hearing.
He is pictured below outside the Los Angeles County Courthouse after a scheduled hearing in July.
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The court hearing on Britney Spears’s conservatorship will begin in an hour.
This time, there will be no remote access and no audio feed.
In June, Spears’s testimony in which she denounced the conservatorship was heard in full.
However, all LA County courthouses have since ended the programme which enabled people to attend court hearings remotely, resuming in-person access instead.
“Effective 28 June, the Court will no longer offer the Remote Audio Attendance Program (RAAP) to listen remotely to courtroom proceedings. The Court implemented this temporary program during the pandemic recognising there may be abuses of the Court’s orders prohibiting recording, filming, and distribution of proceedings,” reads a statement released on 24 June, shortly after Spears’s hearing that month.
“Widespread breaches by the public in a recent court proceeding highlighted the need to return to in-person, open courtroom proceedings, which is a welcome development.”
Supporters of Britney Spears gathered for a “Free Britney” rally in London today (29 September) ahead of the court hearing.
Hours before the hearing, a major street outside the Los Angeles courthouse was closed to vehicles, The Associated Press reports. This allowed about 100 Spears supporters to march and host a rally where they shouted “Hey, hey, ho, ho, the conservatorship has got to go!” and other pro-Britney chants.
The conservatorship hearing should be starting now in Los Angeles. This time, there is no remote access and no audio feed. The hearing is in-person access only.
Here is footage of the Britney Spears supporters who gathered outside the courthouse ahead of the hearing: