Spears’ Conservatorship is Unlikely to End
On Wednesday June 23rd, Britney Spears gave testimony explaining the emotional trauma she has experienced under her 13 year conservatorship.
She asked LA judge, Brenda Penny to end her conservatorship without any psychiatric evaluations. Spears has petitioned to remove her father, Jamie Spears from his role in his daughter’s estate. Which was later rejected by the court.
Spears explained to the court that she felt her previous psychiatrist had been abusive.
She alleged that the psychiatrist who passed away in 2019, had forced her to take lithium after she had refused to do a in Las Vegas, and that her management told the doctor that she hadn’t been taking her medication. Spears also said that her doctor required her to have 6 nurses in her home, who watched her dress and wouldn’t let her leave.
Allegations of abuse aren’t uncommon in conservatorships said Tamar Arminak, a conservatorship lawyer who had worked with Amanda Bynes’ parents.
75 percent of how judges base their decisions of whether or not to keep someone under court-ordered guardianship, are based on Doctors declarations to the court, which detail whether conservatees are able to make decisions for themselves.
Arminak says that there should be a high standard to force people like Britney into a conservatorship. Otherwise anyone with mental illness, or any assets or the ability to make money like Spears should be worried.
I deserve to have a life. I’ve worked my whole life. And I’m tired of feeling alone. I deserve to have the same rights as anybody does, by having a child, a family, any of those things, and more so. Spears said in her testimony.
Spears’ situation has highlighted a larger debate around mental health and disability rights when it comes to forced treatment and guardianships, Burnim said. The guardianship system is unlikely to reform or change.