Los Angeles Superior Court probate Judge Brenda Penny finds herself in the thick of it with 39-year-old pop singer Britney Spears asked to have her conservatorship terminated. Britney’s alleged that her father Jamie has abused the guardianship and conservatorship for the past 13 years asking Judge Penny to remove the arrangement that prevents Britney from full access to her $60 million fortune. Judge Penny, like other judges making conservatorship decisions, relies heavily, at least 75%, on expert witness testimony largely from psychiatrists and psychologists evaluating clients for various kinds of mental and physical disabilities. Determining disability or conservatorship is a comprehensive evaluation involving psychological testing, clinical exams and detailed history taking into account activities of daily living for the clients undergoing evaluation. No judge can make that determination without expert help.
Judge Penny is in no position to grant Britney’s wish to end her conservatorship without having a current expert evaluation. “If somebody has raised concerns about the validity of an e valuation if that evaluation was, you know, four years ago or two years ago, the person is still conserved, and the question of whether the person should be conserved today is not necessarily going to be best answered by going and looking at an evaluation from two years ago,” said Scott Rahn, a California lawyer specializing in trusts and conservatorships. “I think the better question is whether the current status necessitates a conservatorship.” When you consider Britney’s $60 million net worth, a judge must determine whether or not she’s capable of managing her estate by herself, without a risk of exploitation by predators ready to pounce on Spears once she has free access to all her funds.
Penny rejected Spears legal demand to have her father Jamie, who’s conserved her estate for the past 13 years, removed as conservatorship. Penny rejected Britney’s petition because she has no way of judging whether she continues to need conservatorship to manage her assets. “To be totally honest with you, when [the doctor] passed away, I got on my knees and thanked God,” Britney said, letting Judge Penny know that she’s still acting irrationally. Britney’s psychiatrist who evaluated her did so at the request of the conservator or court to ascertain Britney’s fitness to manage her own affairs. Spears admitted that the psychiatrist, who died in 2019, put her on lithium, something different from her usual drug protocol. Britney claimed the lithium made her feel “drunk” and “scared.” Whatever the reaction to lithium, the message to Judge Penny is that she was diagnosed as a Bipolar 1 or Bipolar 2 disorders.
Britney’s anger toward her psychiatrist shows that she’s not playing with a full deck, especially in front of Judge Penny. Britney should have told Penny she’s different now then she was then and wants a new evaluation. But no Britney said, if effect, I spit on her psychiatrist’s grave. Disability and conservatorship evaluations are no joke, where highly trained psychiatrists and psychologists perform exhaustive evaluations to give the court an objective assessment. Britney or her friends may wish her free her of her conservatorship but before the court is willing to go out on a limb giving her back full control of her finances, the court wants proof of her capacity. “It is the psychiatrist that holds, sort of, dangling the carrot. ‘Everybody around you is telling me you’re complying,’ You’re not doing well,” said Tamar Mininak, a conservatorship lawyer who worked with Amanda Bynes’ parents.
Spears already told Judge Penny that she doesn’t want to be subjected to another psychiatric evaluation related to her current mental status and level of functioning. Telling the judge she doesn’t want another evaluation rules out removing Britney’s conservatorship because there are no new facts to add to the decision. “There is no reason why her own attorney cannot seek out alternative expert opinion, come in to court with an alternative report for a new psychiatrists saying, truthfully, that perhaps she does suffer form long-term mental illness, but that mental illness is under control,” Amiak said. But the fact that Britney refuses another evaluation makes the issue a moot point to Judge Penny. No judge can rely on hearsay or self-interested testimony from friends or family. Judges can only rely on qualified medical examiners, capable of giving disinterested evaluations of disability and conservatorships.
Britney has many sympathizers on E! Online, People Magazine and other tabloids. But Judge Penny must have hard facts before she cancels her conservatorship, letting Britney handle her own affairs. According to Ira Burnim, legal director of Brazelon Center for Mental Health Law, said conservatorship are meant to help people incapable of managing their basic needs, allowing them to remain as remain independent. Burnim thinks Britney could argue to Judge Penny that she’s different now than she was 13 years ago. But Penny has a right to ask that if Briteny disagrees with past mental health evaluations, she has a right to a new one and submit it to the court. “It’s probably the No. 1 complaints of people on the public mental health system for their care, which is they’re not heard and their preferences aren’t respected,” Burnim said, completely missing the point of an objective evaluation.
