Celebrity Divorce Lawyer Explains Britney Spears’ Conservatorship Battle
[Source: 60 Minutes Australia]
Celebrity Divorce Lawyer Chris Melcher Explains Britney Spears’ Conservatorship Battle on 60 minutes Australia
Britney Spears sure knows how to put on a show. And her fans have always loved her for it. But her performances in this Los Angeles courthouse must surely be some of her most memorable. The pop star turning star witness against her own father. It’s one thing to not want your father to be part of your affairs, but this is all-out war.
“It has definitely become war,” stated celebrity divorce lawyer Christopher C. Melcher.
Reporter: What’s on show here is the latest skirmish in Britney’s battle to reclaim control of her life, something she lost 13 years ago when she suffered a very public breakdown. Back then, to help her recovery, a court-ordered conservatorship gave responsibility for all of Britney’s professional and personal affairs to a group of people led by her father, Jamie. In effect, it took away her right to make any decisions about anything for herself.
“Now, some folks may need a conservatorship and these are gravely disabled or incapacitated people who just clearly cannot take care of their own affairs. That’s not Britney,” stated celebrity lawyer Christopher C. Melcher.
Reporter: Five months ago, it first became clear to the world, Britney wanted to start calling the shots again, but undoing or making changes to the conservatorship has proven a time-consuming and difficult task. In court, she’s given evidence her life has been ruined by her father’s total control.
Junior Olivas (Fan): God, it was heartbreaking to hear Britney’s testimony. To hear her say that her whole family’s should be in jail, nobody helped her. She’s not allowed to have babies. She has an IUD in her that she can’t remove. She had no idea that she couldn’t ask for the conservatorship to be terminated. It was like who has been helping her all these years?
Reporter: While most of the world looked the other way, Britney’s steadfast fans, people like Junior Olivas have been doing their best to help by forming the Free Britney Movement.
Junior Olivas: I was like, okay, this is it. Now it’s time to jump. I knew it right then. I knew because I already had my suspicions that something was wrong. We were like, what can we do as fans? We don’t have any power, any money or anything to help her. I was like, you know what? Let’s make some signs. Let’s go rally. Let’s contact some press to come and cover us and hopefully, we could get the conversation going.
Reporter: The conversation is well and truly going. Four days ago, Britney had a small but significant victory. The judge granted her the right to her own lawyer. This is a game-changer for her, isn’t it? Having her own lawyer.
” It is. She has a right to pick her own lawyer. That should have been given to her from the get-go and somebody who’s free of influence from the conservator. This should be ending as quickly as it started,” stated top family law attorney Christopher C. Melcher of one of California’s best family law firms Walzer Melcher LLP.
Reporter: Hollywood attorney, Christopher Melcher, has been closely following Britney’s fight against her father. He can’t understand why the nearly 40-year-old is still captive to Jamie Spears wishes.
Christopher Melcher: What Britney told the court is powerful because we can hear in her own words that she wants this over with. We can hear in her own words, how this is affecting her. The court needs to act urgently. Every moment that this conservatorship remains is a moment of liberty that’s taken away from Britney.
Reporter: This has gone almost from a mad conspiracy into a shocking reality.
Christopher Melcher: Why was there so much money spent on the conservatorship? Why is the value of the estate seemingly low? Why wasn’t she listened to?
Reporter: Now, finally armed with her own lawyer. This case is set to change dramatically and maybe for the first time in more than a decade, it might just be in Britney Spears’s favor.
“The fact that she’s able to speak and communicate so much information about what’s happening in her life in a coherent way, makes me believe right there from that statement alone, that she doesn’t need a conservatorship,” explained Christopher Melcher.
©2021 60 Minutes Australia. No claims made to copyrighted material. Aired 7/18/21.
