How the Britney Spears Case Might Change Conservatorship Law Forever

Updated November 2, 2023

In the fall of 2021, just about everywhere you'd turn—from gossip magazines, to Netflix, to Capitol Hill—people were talking about Britney Spears's conservatorship. For more than a decade, Spears was under the court-approved control of her father, Jamie Spears. In late September 2021, a judge granted Britney's request to suspend her father from overseeing her $60 million estate and set a hearing for November 12, 2021, to decide whether to terminate the conservatorship altogether. Then, at that November 12 hearing, the pop star's 13-year conservatorship was indeed finally put to an end.

In many ways, Britney Spears is unlike any of the other 1.3 million Americans estimated to be on conservatorships (called "adult guardianships" in some states). Courts typically grant conservatorships only when people are so affected by dementia or other medical or mental health conditions that they can't take care of themselves. Yet Spears is a celebrity who released multiple albums and earned tens of millions of dollars during the years she was under a conservatorship.

Spears's case had a lot of people, including federal and state lawmakers, asking fundamental questions about conservatorships: Is it too easy to impose a conservatorship on someone? Does the process keep people safe or violate their rights? And, if this could happen to Britney, could it happen to me?

What Is a Conservatorship?

Conservatorships are legal arrangements for adults who can't take care of themselves or manage their own finances. The idea is that a judge appoints a responsible person or organization (called the "conservator") to care for the person who needs help (called the "conservatee").

Each state has its own set of conservatorship (or guardianship) laws. A court can appoint someone to handle medical and personal decisions (called a "conservator of the person"), or someone to handle financial matters (called a "conservator of the estate"), or someone to handle both, depending on the needs of the conservatee.

The Conservatorship Process

The process begins when a person (often a spouse or relative of the would-be conservatee) files a court petition (request) for a conservatorship. If a judge grants the petition, the conservator gets whatever powers are included in the conservatorship order.

The judge is supposed to focus on the best interests of the conservatee and impose the "least restrictive" forms of support, assistance, and protection. In most states, a judge must find—by clear and convincing evidence—that a person can't make their own decisions (personal and financial) before appointing a conservator to make choices for that person.

Rights Taken Away in a Conservatorship

Conservatees can have major rights taken away by a conservatorship, including the right to:

• marry
• drive
• vote, and
• have a job.

Courts can let conservators control all sorts of issues for conservatees, including when it comes to:

• deciding where to live and whom to spend time with
• getting medical treatment (including forced birth control)
• managing money and property
• suing and defending against lawsuits, and
• applying for government benefits.

In most states, the conservator must go to court and get permission before taking very serious steps for a conservatee—for example, committing them to an institution, filing for divorce on their behalf, or consenting to sterilization or abortion.

Why Britney Spears's Conservatorship Is Strange to Many

Conservatorships can be helpful when people have problems thinking and organizing because of things like head injuries, strokes, brain tumors, mental health conditions, and dementia. For example, the parent of a child with an intellectual disability might petition for a conservatorship when the child turns 18. Or, a daughter might request a conservatorship for her father when he's diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Put differently, most people on conservatorships aren't like Britney Spears—young, successful, and consistently working in a highly competitive industry.

Courts typically appoint a "conservator of the person" to take care of a person's basic needs: food, clothing, and shelter. Courts appoint "conservators of the estate" only when conservatees are unable to manage—or hire someone to manage—their finances, and avoid being scammed or taken advantage of by so-called friends.

Not all of the facts of Spears's case are clear; most of her court hearings were closed to the public and the transcripts were sealed. But some disability rights activists and lawyers have pointed out that it's quite unusual for someone like Spears, whose recent Las Vegas residency grossed well over $100 million, to be found totally incapable of managing her personal and property affairs for over 13 years.

Spears's ability to maintain her career under the constraints of her conservatorship might be evidence that she didn't need the conservatorship, or it might be evidence that the conservatorship provided the structure she needed to thrive. Further complicating matters is the fact that people—mostly Jamie Spears—financially benefited from her conservatorship. Britney reportedly paid her father at least $5 million for his work as her conservator and shelled out millions more in conservatorship-related legal fees.

Britney Spears's age, celebrity, and wealth set her apart from most conservatees. But organizations like the ACLU argue that violations are typical for people living under conservatorships and guardianships, and that there isn't enough oversight. (In her harrowing testimony in June 2021, Spears told the court that her father forced her to perform, made her take the powerful mood stabilizer lithium, and refused to allow her to remove her IUD to prevent her from having more children.)

In other words, while the fact that someone like Britney Spears is under a conservatorship might be unique, the fact that a conservatee has suffered serious abuses might not be.

The Movement to Change Conservatorship Law

In California (where Spears lives), and in other states, conservatorship and adult guardianship laws are facing growing cries for change.

On September 30, 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law the so-called "#FreeBritney" bill (AB 1194). The law is designed to prevent some of the abuses that Spears's case highlighted, by making it easier for conservatees to have a conservator removed and imposing financial penalties on conservators who abuse conservatees. Remarkably, politicians from both political parties unanimously supported it.

In the U.S. government, lawmakers in the House and Senate have proposed their own legislation in response to Spears's conservatorship battle.

The House bill (called the "FREE Act") would, among other reforms, give conservatees the right to ask the court to replace a private conservator (like Spears's father) with a public conservator (a government official) without having to prove abuse. It would also guarantee anyone under conservatorship an independent caseworker to monitor for signs of abuse.

The Senate bill (called the "Guardianship Accountability Act") would create a national resource center for conservatorships and guardianships. That resource center would publish best practices for states to follow and expand federal grants for training and background checks.

Years before Spears's case made headlines, the National Council on Disability (NDC) proposed common-sense conservatorship reforms. For example, the NDC recommends that courts give all individuals facing conservatorship information about how to avoid conservatorship and how to have their rights restored, plus access to independent lawyers paid by the government. These kinds of reforms are designed to support people with disabilities while letting them have more say in their own lives.