Well, that’s the whole point of disagreement, isn’t it? The judge is free to question her lawyer about the circumstances of his being retained and so forth.
If she was smearing feces on his office wall and then threw $20k on his desk (hopefully with her other hand) then that might not be a good contract. But the proof is in the proof, and I think there are more than enough lawyers to take her case.
How does she get before a judge to argue her case?
I kinda wondered why she never wandered into any random attorney’s office and threw $20,000 at them but she didn’t. While I think Spears absolutely can conduct her own affairs I don’t think she is particularly bright.
Do you think she should be able to intuit her own rights and act on them? What if she can’t (for whatever reason)? She relies on her appointed attorney who may not be acting in her best interests. Do you think she has to be able to figure that out on her own to protect her rights? Isn’t that attorney supposed to do that for her?
Late today, the judge in the case refused to remove Jamie Spears from the financial portion of the conservatorship (the same judge, in February, allowed a wealth management company to come in as a co-conservator for Britney’s finances). This NPR article says that there will be another hearing regarding the conservatorship next month.
Yeah, it’s a hard damn thing and really a problem in our system. But if someone: a brother, a cousin, a friend, calls up a lawyer who wants to take the case, then the lawyer will do so. A lot of people suffer, mostly in prison, because they can’t get to someone who can do something.
She has enough money ($2k per week) to get attention plus her press headlines. If you want to start a group advocating for people who are stuck in situations with no money or no friends, then I’ll be your co-sponsor.
To follow up. That attorney is supposed to do what it is her “best interests” which I have always argued is a ridiculous standard in law as you or I am not held to it. It is not really even a standard as lawyers, prosecutors, defendants, and judges all have different opinions grounded in nothing. Brittany earned the money. If she wants to place it all on “red” at a roulette table, that is her choice in a free country, best interests be damned.
The video I linked earlier kinda addresses this.
As an attorney you advocate for what your client wants. Their “best interests” are whatever the client says they are.
It is not up to the attorney to second-guess their client. The attorney can, of course, counsel their client towards a different route but, at the end of it all, the attorney needs to abide by their client’s decision.
If the client says bet on red then the attorney needs to bet on red for them no matter how much they think black is the better choice.
We are talking past each other. The attorney appointed by the court argues for her “best interests” which likely will not be what she wants.
I am talking about a Petition to Terminate where she hires her own attorney to represent her.
She is in a conservatorship.
She CANNOT hire her own attorney.
That’s the problem.
EDIT: Actually I am not sure about that. But she HAS been provided a court appointed attorney. One she clearly relied on but one who may not have had her best interests at heart.
You are now arguing everyone needs to be smart enough and have the ability to extract themselves from a situation like this.
But the attorney that she does in fact hire can argue that this is the whole basis of the petition; that she indeed can hire an attorney, and did so successfully judge because you see me standing here in court. That is the failsafe…at least for someone who has money.
ETA: Also she didn’t smear feces on my wall and was lucid, intelligent, and communicated her position very well.
See my edit above (we posted kinda at the same time)
I am not. If you’ll read up I said this was a very serious problem and would form a group with you regarding it.
And that’s great. (really)
But how does it bear on the Spears’ case?
People who care about her can hire an attorney, paid for with her “meager” $2k a week and petition to have this conservatorship terminated. She is in a far greater position that some poor asshole in Arkansas whose daughter is bleeding him dry because he is very much competent but uneducated and his family hates him.
Seems Spears is doing this now.
But she was robbed of a lot of money before she got here and her battle to fix it is crazy hard.
This exposes a problem in the system.
We all get a conservatorship for grandma with dementia but this was highway robbery.
I conditionally agree. From the facts presented, this is an outrage. But we don’t have the full court file, so I’ll withhold destroying my laptop until then. 
I just saw this:
This was just on a motion though. Spears case is still alive and progressing.
How can she hire an attorney if she’s not considered legally competent to enter into a contract?
Read earlier posts.
She doesn’t have legal standing to walk into an attorney’s office and drop cash on their desk. Just as the attorney can’t take the cash from a 5 year old, they can’t take it from her. Not legally.
Its hard to hire an attorney without access to her own money. IIRC, she is allowed $2000 a month.