A recent documentary released on Hulu, “Framing Britney Spears,” resulted in a resurgence of the #FreeBritney movement. This movement is made up of fans of Britney Spears who want her to be free from the conservatorship she is currently fighting to remove in court. 

A conservatorship is legally defined as “a court case where a judge appoints a responsible person or organization (called the ‘conservator’) to care for another adult (called the ‘conservatee’) who cannot care for himself or herself or manage his or her own finances.”

The average person doesn’t know much about conservatorships. But for fans of Britney Spears, this has been on their minds since 2008.

The #FreeBritney movement started in 2008 when a court made Britney’s father, James Spears, her conservator after she was hospitalized during a struggle with mental health issues. This means he had control over her finances and medical decisions.  

In 2020, a judge granted Britney’s request to name a financial group, Bessemer Trust, co-conservator. She is still fighting in court to remove her father and name Bessemer Trust the sole conservator of her estate. 

Conservatorships are notoriously hard to remove. In order to remove one, a conservatee needs to prove to the court that the conservator “has breached [their] fiduciary duty to the conservatee.”

Essentially, the conservatee or an interested party (family member or attorney) has to prove that the conservator is guilty of misusing their position. A conservatorship does not just go away, even when the conservatee no longer needs a conservator to make these decisions for them. 

Britney has now spent several years fighting to remove her father as conservator and is even willing to remain under a conservatorship as long as it’s not her father’s. Her attorney has stated that she’s afraid of her father and she will not perform as long as James (who goes by Jamie) is in control of her career. 

Why does the court continue to reject her wishes? Perhaps they’ve determined she still needs a conservator, something we don’t know for sure. But she clearly does not want her father to have this amount of power over her life. 

She should have a choice in who controls her finances and her career, the same choice that all of us deserve to have.

The ACLU published an interview in August that covers not just Britney Spears’ conservatorship but conservatorships in general. In this interview, they examine the risks of conservatorships and why they consider conservatorships a disability rights issue. 

“The ease with which disabled people can be stripped of their rights, and the extraordinary difficulties they face getting those rights back, is a systemic disability rights issue about which we have serious concerns.”

This is not to say that all conservatorships are wrong. There are times when there are severe risks if someone has control over their major life decisions, and a thoughtful, last-resort conservatorship can alleviate this issue and ensure the safety — mentally, physically and emotionally — of the individual at risk.

But as the ACLU notes, conservatorships often aren’t thoughtful and in the best interest of the conservatee. Judges and families don’t always consider all the possible alternatives before implementing a conservatorship. There are huge risks to forcibly stripping someone of their control. 

Britney has been fighting for years to gain some control back over her life. It’s been 12 years since she was appointed a conservator. Why won’t the court respect her wishes, especially because she is no longer fighting to remove the conservatorship completely but instead change who is in control? 

Britney’s legal struggle is only one out of thousands nationwide.

Conservatorships should be used only as a last resort and, once the conservatee proves to be capable once more, be easily removed.

People should not have to prove in court that the person controlling their life has misused this power. What about conservatees who aren’t incredibly rich with access to attorneys? How do they advocate for themselves once a conservatorship is put into place? 

As the ACLU said, “conservatorships limit a person’s ability to advocate for themselves, learn from their decisions and mistakes, and grow and develop. There is a risk in being told that your opinions, your likes and dislikes, don’t matter — it makes it harder to stand up to abuse or neglect.”