Attorneys spar over powers held by Britney Spears' father

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Attorneys for Britney Spears and her father sparred Thursday over how he should share power with a financial company newly appointed as his partner in the conservatorship that controls her money.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny overruled the objections of Jamie Spears' attorney, Vivian Lee Thoreen, who argued that he should not yield previously granted rights and powers while working with his new co-conservator, The Bessemer Trust.

Thoreen had argued that the proposed order Britney Spears' court-appointed attorney Samuel Ingham III drafted to appoint the new co-conservator was “unclear and ambiguous by design” as he seeks to take authority away from Jamie Spears.

The judge's decision was a minor victory for Britney Spears. Ingham, appointed by the court to speak directly for Spears in the conservatorship’s decisions, repeated that her goal is to have her father out entirely.

“It is no secret that my client does not want her father as co-conservator,” Ingham said. “But we recognize that removal is a separate issue.”

The judge declined Ingham's request to suspend Jamie Spears as conservator at a dramatic and contentious hearing in November, at which Ingham said that Britney Spears feared her father and refused to resume her career so long as he had power over it. Thoreen said the statements were inadmissible hearsay that did not reflect the reality of the situation.

Penny instead appointed the Bessemer Trust as a co-conservator, leading to the current fight over power-sharing.

Thursday's hearing was more technical and less emotional than November's hearing. The hearing came in the wake of the release of the FX and Hulu documentary “The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney." The documentary has few new revelations....