Britney Spears lawyer statement

[RosyPickle]

I know there have been other threads about Spears and the 'Free Britney' movement, sorry! But anyone seen this latest statement from her lawyer? What do you make of it?

metro.co.uk/2020/10/08/britney-spears-likened-to-comatose-patient-by-her-lawyer-during-conservatorship-hearing-13390149/

I find it such an odd thing to say about your own client. It must mean things are worse than they look with Britney's mental capacity? She does come across as very childlike but to say that she lacks capacity to sign a declaration about whether or not she wishes to keep performing, is surely quite extreme? Poor woman.

metro.co.uk/2020/10/08/britney-spears-likened-to-comatose-patient-by-her-lawyer-during-conservatorship-hearing-13390149/

Who lets her do those weird Instagram videos then? The whole thing is bizarre.

It does need to be reviewed though, surely it can’t go on indefinitely. Why aren’t their reports from psychologists or something? Why is it lawyers?

Her sons are the same age as mine, I always think of them when she hits the news.

I saw that it’s very strange! Her posts on instagram continue to be bizarre too, although it looks like she’s recently had a holiday with her boyfriend so she’s obviously able to function to some extent

The law on these things in America is terrifying. I read she gets something like $2000 'allowance' (of her own money) a week and he has the rest. She needs to just retire at this point and do odd bits here and there, as I believe she wants to.

Does she have a MH diagnosis?

If she's so mentally incapable of deciding of she should continue working or not, they she can't speak to a judge etc surely that would bring up questions over her capacity to agree to other areas of her life such as sexual relationships? Y point is I don't think she can actually be as bad as those controlling her money want to portray
Who has custody of the kids?

I agree I think it's incredibly weird and looks from the outside at least to be an abuse of the conservatorship laws in California. I'm just questioning why her own lawyers seem to be undermining her in this way?
Where are they setting the bar if the argument is that she's able to work and be in a relationship but apparently lacks the mental capacity to sign something?

The money thing is odd. It does seem to me that her family aren't necessarily profiting hugely off her. There is a salary for the person in charge of the conservatorship (previously her dad) which is good money but nothing stratospheric given Britney's wealth. Are they worried she will just burn through everything? She doesn't have a history of that though and had previously set up a Trust with quite protective terms in the event of her not having the capacity to make decisions about it.

@user1471565182

Does she have a MH diagnosis?

Bipolar is thought to run in the family and sadly it is thought this is what affects her. Her grandmother was similarly ill and committed suicide when her father was a child. It's an extremely sad situation but Britney isn't a hostage, she's a patient.

She doesn't have a history of that though and had previously set up a Trust with quite protective terms in the event of her not having the capacity to make decisions about it.

The vegas wedding with no pre nup risking her whole fortune so far at that point was risky financially. And that's just one of the things we know about. All sorts of spending could have gone on behind the scenes.

It is quite a strange statement and suggests a couple of things:

1. the judge should ensure an independent diagnosis is carried out of her condition and mental capacity rather than rely on her solicitor's word for it
2. if she has insufficient mental capacity to sign a statement it must be the case that she has insufficient capacity to consent to performing.

I’ve said it before, I think it is very obvious she is severely unwell but because she is young and pretty and often wears make up and dances nicely, people do not believe she could possibly have any kind of debilitating mental health problem. She doesn’t look sick enough for her fans.

Everybody with capacity has the freedom to make decisions others may consider unwise. (Like marrying when it may not be considered financially wise by others.)

Making unwise decisions or decisions others disagree with is not how it is determined whether a person has capacity or not.

It's about whether they can understand the information relevant to the decision, retain it, evaluate it, and then communicate their decision.

Capacity is also decision-specific.

The vegas wedding with no pre nup risking her whole fortune so far at that point was risky financially. And that's just one of the things we know about. All sorts of spending could have gone on behind the scenes

But it's her money. If they were genuinely that concerned about her, they would be supporting her wish to retire surely? Obviously there's more to it and the media just paints one picture, but it's scary that the law allows this there. If she was really in such a bad way, for her own good there are other measures to put in place that actually support her and not just control her and her money.

I have a daughter who very much reminds me of Britney. On the outside she's this pretty, funny vivacious young lady. No one would guess she was anything but a normal young girl. She puts on this mask you see and behaves how she thinks people expect her to behave. When she's with us and can be herself she's emotionally unstable, has no concept of money, risk, appropriate behaviour etc. She is easily taken advantage of and would do absolutely whatever a stranger told her to do. She can meet someone for five minutes, or even just see a person on tv/internet and she's completely obsessed and in her words "in total love". She's so scarily vulnerable. We will have to as a family care for her for her whole life just as it looks like Britney is being cared for by her family

In seriousness though @blissfulllife, if your daughter did have access to whatever help or support is available- the best in the world if needed, and could leave a toxic industry which puts her under a ridiculous amount of scrutiny, stress, 'yes people' who facilitate her behaviour to an extent and a host of people genuinely out to take advantage of her; would you not prefer that for her own sake, rather than just control her money, certain aspects of her life, and not allow her to stop work as she wants?

I can only speak from my experience and that is that my daughter is an incredibly talented artist. I encourage this as it grounds her and gives her focus. When she gravitates away from her art she becomes agitated and goes into a free fall. She needs this positive thing, something she is good at in her life to keep her going. But no I wouldn't force her.

I doubt any judge would force her. But she does need her say. I'm sure a judge would be able to tell if she was unable to make decisions for herself pretty quickly and with advice from mental health professionals. It's all very sad

Her dad claims she has early onset dementia which is why the conservatorship needs to continue, but she was perfectly capable of a 4 year residency in Vegas her dad gets paid $170/180k a year for it so he isn't raking it in, but I wonder if it is more about control than the money.

This podcast covered the Free Brtiney movement, it was a really good deep dive into it.
www.sinisterhood.com/episodes

Maybe her lawyer is playing it from the position of- this is how bad she is and her father is just taking advantage making her perform when she wants to retire?

I feel weirdly protective about her, even when she was the biggest star in the world you very rarely heard her speak and there were obvious hangers on.

Her Instagram is really sad and tragic. I do t know how anyone can’t see that she is very unwell and believe that actually she’s just a hostage.

I remember watching a programme years ago and it had a man in his 20s possibly 30s with a degenerative condition. That was a type of dementia but not what we think of when we hear the word.

I wish I could remember more of the details but I remember that he had a lot of ‘normal’ brain capacity but other things were just crumbling so it made it very difficult to understand exactly what was wrong with him from an outside perspective.

I remember It said he’d died at the end. It was pretty rare and very heartbreaking.

If she's virtually comatose, how can she perform? Those two statements seem so at odds with one another.

From her IG stuff, she seems drugged up to me, but not comatose. Such a weird turn of phrase. Whatever going on, something doesn't add up.

I believe she is unwell, but that what is in place isn't effective at helping her, and serves the others interests who are involved a lot more.

I do think she's unwell for sure, but a conservatorship is incredibly restrictive and gives total control to the person/ people who is in charge of it. I can't imagine it's the only option available to keep her safe. What about a power of attorney? She's been a judge on American Idol, released albums, toured and had a Las Vegas residency over the years while being under the conservatorship. It just doesn't seem believable that she's been able to cope with all that while still supposedly having no ability to make basic decisions for herself. Even if those might be bad decisions, isn't it her right to make mistakes and/or spend her own money?

When she had a breakdown I could absolutely see the need for intervention but generally speaking people with quite severe mental illness aren't treated as though they're permanently incapable. Dementia was cited about ten years ago wasn't it? I know there are different types of dementia but you wouldn't expect her to still be (relatively) functional all this time later.

@SisterAgatha

I’ve said it before, I think it is very obvious she is severely unwell but because she is young and pretty and often wears make up and dances nicely, people do not believe she could possibly have any kind of debilitating mental health problem. She doesn’t look sick enough for her fans.

Her eyes certainly speak a million words to me.

Bless her, I feel really sorry for her. Always had a Britney soft spot.

The statement by the former estate manager creeps me out: "‘I have had people in conservatorship who have got themselves right and it has been terminated..."

As conservatorship is meant to aid the legal, financial, medical and/or daily care of someone with a significant enough disability that impairs their ability to do that themselves, 'got themselves right' is a very off turn of phrase to apply to that. The question is is she well enough to do so, and if not, yes that leads to ethical and moral questions on if she should be performing, but legally - as creepy as it is - I think it ends up falling to the person with capacity, the conservator, to decide even if others think it's foolish or disagree. There have been issues with others out of the limelight who've had to fight for everything down to the simple ability to go to bed when they want. This is a major hotly debated issue in disability rights in the US.

I'm guessing if her lawyer is arguing this, then the main argument is against her father having sole conservatorship (or having it at all) rather than entirely against her having a conservator which is what I thought Free Britney was all about. If her own lawyer is not going to argue that she's well enough to sign a statement of her wishes, it looks like it's going to be a difficult legal battle.