Britney Spears case back in court to challenge father's ownership of her career
Video report by ITV News Correspondent Juliet Bremner
The future of Britney Spears’ career and finances will be in the hands of a Los Angeles court again after a documentary sparked outrage.
Days after Framing Britney Spears – which explores the former pop sensation’s legal arrangement with her father – aired, her conservatorship is under scrutiny once again.
Under the conservatorship arrangement, the superstar's father has power over her career, finances, and even her relationship with her teenage sons.
In November last year, the singer had asked a court in Los Angeles to prevent her father from returning to his conservator role - which has given him broad control over her life and career for 12 years.
But the judge declined to suspend James Spears from arrangement, despite his daughter telling lawyers she is "afraid of her father".
The singer entered into the agreement in 2008 after suffering serious mental struggles and public meltdowns.
Her father briefly stood aside in 2019 citing health reasons, but his daughter has been taking legal action to make that permanent.
Ms Spears' attorney Samuel D. Ingham III told the judge: "My client has informed me that she is afraid of her father.
"She will not perform again if her father is in charge of her career," he said and told the judge Ms Spears had not spoken to her father in a very long time.
The 39-year-old singer has been on an indefinite work hiatus since early 2019.
Lawyers for her father defended what they called a perfect record in his run as her conservator.
They argued that the disruption caused by Mr Spears' removal would do his daughter harm, and that claims about a strained "father-daughter" relationship were "hearsay".
Though the judge declined to remove Mr Spears' from the conservator role, she did say she would consider future petitions for his suspension or outright removal.