A judge ruled that pop singer Britney Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, must sit for a deposition and produce all the documents that are being requested by the pop star’s team.
According to Variety, the judge ordered Britney’s father to be deposed within the next 30 days in Los Angeles.
This move favours the singer, and indicates that the court believes it has reason to further look into shocking allegations that Jamie had hired a security firm that put his daughter under surveillance throughout her conservatorship, with allegations of monitoring her phone and bugging her bedroom to record her private conversations.
Prior to the judge’s ruling on these motions, Jamie’s attorney, Alex Weingarten, asked the judge to give his team access to documents from the singer’s team to help prepare for his client’s deposition, reports Variety.
“It’s a deposition. Not an ambush,” Weingarten said in the courtroom, before Judge Penny ruled against his request.
The hearing at the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse was heated, with fiery debate among Weingarten and the pop star’s attorney, Mathew Rosengart.
Wednesday’s hearing marked a big victory for the singer, who has been fighting against her father in a continuous legal battle ever since her conservatorship was terminated last year.
Britney was put under a court-ordered conservatorship in 2008 by her father, who acted as her sole conservator for most of the 13 years.
After more than a decade of fighting against the arrangement, Britney’s father was suspended by the court in September 2021, and the conservatorship was ultimately terminated in November 2021. Despite the singer’s newfound freedom, her legal team’s battle has remained messy with no resolution from either side.
Still on the table after Wednesday’s hearing is whether the singer will be deposed by her father’s team.
The judge nearly reached a decision on that matter, first giving a tentative order to deny Jamie’s motion to depose his daughter, but then decided to continue the motion, asking the attorneys on both sides to present their arguments to the court on why the singer should or should not sit for a deposition, ahead of the July 27 hearing.
“You don’t sit down a victim for a deposition to be deposed by the victimiser,” Rosengart argued in the courtroom, telling the judge that sitting for a deposition would be “re-traumatising” to the singer.
Last month, Weingarten filed documents on behalf of Jamie, requesting to depose his daughter, in light of her social media posts. Rosengart blasted the request, calling it a “revenge” and “sham”.
In court on Wednesday, Weingarten said that having Spears sit for a deposition is par for the course, since she is a party in the case.
Rosengart firmly disagreed, arguing that Spears’ father should have all the information he needs, given that he was the one who was running her conservatorship and making decisions about her life.
