Britney Spears Has Won the Right to Hire Her Own Attorney
Following the resignation of her court-appointed attorney Sam Ingham, a judge has declared that Britney Spears can choose his replacement
CelebritiesNews
After 13 long years of being denied every right to autonomy she has requested, it seems like Britney Spears has finally won a small victory in court: She can now pick her own lawyer.
According to the New York Times, at Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Brenda Penny approved both the resignation of Spears’s longtime, court-appointed attorney, Sam Ingham, as well as his replacement:
“On Wednesday, Judge Brenda Penny approved both Mr. Ingham and Loeb & Loeb’s resignations, as well as a request by Mathew S. Rosengart, a prominent Hollywood lawyer and former federal prosecutor, to represent Ms. Spears. He is expected to take a more aggressive approach and push for the conservatorship to end, according to a person briefed on the matter.”
The move comes following months of bad press about the state of Spears’s conservatorship, as well as the court system that has upheld it. According to Spears herself, who was allowed three weeks ago to testify publicly for the first time since the conservatorship began in 2008, she has been forced to work while denied the opportunity to make decisions for herself regarding marriage and pregnancy. Ingham himself was implicated in that control. According to reports, Ingham once joked with a judge about not telling Spears that she is legally allowed to get married without her conservators’ permission. Spears herself testified that she has been barred from removing her IUD or even riding in a car alone with her boyfriend.
Ingham’s resignation comes on the heels of a great many people involved in the conservatorship jumping ship, including co-conservator Bessemer Trust and her longtime manager Larry Rudolph.
Meanwhile, the depressing circus of opportunists using Britney Spears for attention outside her hearings has reached an all-time low, with accused sex trafficker Rep. Matt Gaetz using the presence of cameras to call Spears’s father and conservator Jamie Spears “a dick.” Jezebel will update if Gaetz issues any statements about kettles being black.