Britney Spears could soon be paying to keep her father in charge of her conservatorship, something she's adamantly against.
The pop star's father, Jamie Spears, filed legal documents to request that Britney's estate pay more than $3 million in legal fees, Page Six reported. Much of that money would be earmarked for Jamie's lawyers, the same ones working on his behalf to keep Britney's conservatorship in place.
In Jamie's request, he asks that he continue receiving $16,000 per month for his role as co-conservator of the estate as well as $2,000 per month for an office space. He asked that his attorneys — Freeman, Freeman & Smiley LLP and Holland & Knight — receive nearly $1.5 million for services rendered.
"If approved by the judge, this money would come from Britney's estate, meaning she essentially would be paying her own father's lawyers to fight her in court," a source close to Britney told Page Six. "Britney's inner circle feels it is an exorbitant amount of money to ask for, especially from someone who is not working at the moment and has stated that she has no plans to resume her career under her father's control."
Britney's conservatorship has been thrust into the limelight of late, especially after the "Framing Britney Spears" documentary made waves earlier this year. Since then, an increasing number of fans have joined the #FreeBritney movement, which argues for the end of the conservatorship that has been in place since 2008. Many of them have loudly voiced their opinions on social media, and many have shown up outside court hearings.
In an Instagram post on March 30, Britney said she didn't watch the documentary but was "embarrassed" by it. "I cried for two weeks," she wrote.
Jamie made reference to the documentary in his request because one of his legal firms, Holland & Knight, charges $500 to $900 an hour to respond to media inquiries regarding the conservatorship.
"This Conservatorship has been the subject of increasingly intense media scrutiny both in traditional news media as well as on social media and also documentary films," Jamie said in he request. "H&K has assisted Mr. Spears in dealing with domestic and global media matters relating to the Conservatorship in order to maintain the privacy of the Conservatee and for the protection of the Estate from inappropriate and/or unwarranted intrusion."
Jamie also requested about $600,000 from Britney to pay her lawyers in the legal battle.
The petition comes a week after Britney filed legal documents to get her father taken off of her conservatorship case permanently. Instead, she wants Jodi Montgomery to be appointed as full-time conservator, a role Jodi has held — under a temporary basis — for a year and a half.