It’s been nearly a year since the end of her conservatorship, but Britney Spears’ fight against her ghoulish relations continues. Now, she’s been awarded another big win, as a judge ruled Wednesday that her father and former conservator Jamie Spears must be deposed within the next month.
Spears and her dad are waging a legal battle against one another, with Britney alleging that Jamie took millions of dollars from her estate, employed security guards to spy on her, bugged her home, and kept tabs on her phone, and Jamie saying that he didn’t do any of that stuff and also that he wants her to pay his legal bills. (This cash for the lawyers would be on top of the $16,000 a month he was paid for the job of being her conservator.)
This deposition is a long time coming—Britney’s lawyers have accused him of trying to dodge questioning by ghosting on three different appointments. However, Jamie is also fighting for the chance to have Britney deposed, and on Wednesday, Los Angeles Judge Brenda Penny didn’t rule the idea out. Both sides’ lawyers will have to present further arguments about whether or not Spears will be forced to sit for questioning.
“You don’t sit down a victim for a deposition to be deposed by the victimizer,” Britney’s lawyer, Matthew Rosengart, pointed out in court Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Rosengart also filed paperwork alleging that the 13-year-long conservatorship wasn’t just the work of Britney’s family, but that her management company also helped create the arrangement—and then profited from it to the tune of millions.
According to The New York Times, Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group, which now represents the Kardashians and Travis Scott, built much of its success off of signing Britney. Jamie was reportedly in debt to the company prior to the conservatorship—but once he had control over Britney’s career, he hired Tri Star to manage his daughter. Britney’s lawyers say that Jamie took home $6 million, while Tri Star earned $18 million from the deal.
Britney’s lawyers allege that the fees Tri Star earned were “exorbitant,” that the company was involved in surveilling the star, and that its founder and CEO Louise Taylor wanted Jamie to be able to give Britney psychotropic drugs and even suggested that she could personally run the conservatorship. An attorney for Tri Star told The Wrap that the allegations were “materially misleading.”
In February, Spears posted and later deleted an Instagram post in which she said that she believed that Tri Star was “trying to kill” her and vowed to “sue the shit” out of her former management company. (Meanwhile, in one 2017 Variety article, Taylor boasted of her work on behalf of women in Hollywood, and said, “I’ve huge heart to help and protect women.”)
With Jamie now court-ordered to produce documents about the surveillance Britney was subjected to, more information about all these shady-as-hell-seeming dealings could soon be revealed. As for his legal efforts against his daughter, here’s hoping he realizes it’s never too late to follow Rosengart’s advice and just “leave her alone.”