UPDATE (7/06/2021): TMZ reported that Spears’ attorney, Sam Ingham, plans on filing a request “to be dismissed as Britney’s court-appointed lawyer.”
During her in-court statement last month, Britney Spears told the world about how her freedom has been limited under the conservatorship.
Not being able to get married, have babies, or work under the terms you choose seems downright un-American. And it looks like Spears wasn’t even allowed to pick her own attorney. Even though she’s paying his fee. Which doesn’t seem right. Let’s look into how that can happen:1
Doesn’t the Constitution say that you have a right to an attorney?
The Constitution says that you have the right to an attorney in a criminal case. So far, the United States Supreme Court hasn’t said that people have a constitutional right to an attorney in most civil cases. The other thing is that Britney has an attorney. It’s just not the one she picked.
How did she end up with a lawyer if she didn’t hire one?
The judge in the case appointed a lawyer for her.
Why is she being forced to pay for a lawyer that she didn’t hire?
The best guess is that the court ordered it. The California Probate Code says:
Upon the hearing, the court shall make an order allowing (1) any compensation requested in the petition the court determines is just and reasonable to the guardian or conservator of the estate for services rendered or to the guardian or conservator of the person for services rendered, or to both, and (2) any compensation requested in the petition the court determines is reasonable to the attorney for services rendered to the guardian or conservator of the person or estate or both. The compensation allowed to the guardian or conservator of the person, the guardian or conservator of the estate, and to the attorney may, in the discretion of the court, include compensation for services rendered before the date of the order appointing the guardian or conservator. The compensation allowed shall thereupon be charged to the estate. Legal services for which the attorney may be compensated include those services rendered by any paralegal performing legal services under the direction and supervision of an attorney. The petition or application for compensation shall set forth the hours spent and services performed by the paralegal.
But, I thought that she had a lawyer that she wanted to hire.
That’s correct. According to an MTV News report from 2008, Adam Streisand appeared in court to represent Britney. He said that she’d hired him. At the hearing, he argued that Britney didn’t want her father as her conservator. Her father objected to Streisand’s representation. Sam Ingham, a court-appointed investigator, told the court that Britney wasn’t competent and “lacked the capacity to retain direct counsel.”
Wait a minute. I thought that Sam Ingham was her court-appointed attorney.
So, was he appointed before or after he said that she wasn’t competent to hire her own lawyer?
After.
What are you implying here, Lea?
Nothing, actually. But, if I’m doing a critical thinking exercise, that’s a detail that I’d find pretty interesting. The courts and the legal profession usually go out of their way to avoid any inference of impropriety. What happened here was probably above-board. But the way it went down is messy.
If the judge had the power to appoint an attorney, why didn’t they just appoint the lawyer Britney wanted?
The answer to that is above my pay grade. I have no idea how court appointments work in California. I also don’t know the standards of experience they use before someone is considered qualified to be court-appointed.
What could keep a judge from forcing me to have an attorney I don’t want if they decide that I’m not competent?
I honestly don’t know. People who have been deemed incompetent can’t retain a lawyer. And if the court has appointed an attorney, only the court can remove that attorney.
Final Thoughts:
- For what it’s worth, my gut tells me that there’s something unconstitutional going on here.
- The standard for someone being incapable of handling their own affairs isn’t an easy one to meet. No one who hasn’t looked at the whole case file is in a position to say if Spears was or wasn’t at the level of incapacity that would support having her enter the conservatorship or deny her the ability to have the lawyer of her choosing. On this one, I’d say that we have more questions than answers.
- Just so we’re all on the same page: Everything on this site is for educational purposes only and is just my opinion. It also doesn’t create any type of attorney-client relationship. This is a bookstore’s blog. …And you really shouldn’t be getting your legal advice from the internet, anyway. That’s a terrible idea. If you have a legal question, contact a qualified lawyer in the state that you have the question in. ↩
