More than two years after a judge ended the conservatorship that had given James P. Spears control of his pop star daughter’s life, Britney Spears and her father have settled their outstanding legal dispute over the payment of his legal fees and his management of her finances.
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed in court filings made by both parties in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday. But the two sides had been at odds over the size of Mr. Spears’s legal fees and questions about his oversight of her money as conservator.
Ms. Spears’s 13-year-long conservatorship, which began in 2008 after a series of public breakdowns, was terminated in 2021. Her father, who served as one of her conservators for its duration, had been seeking court approval for more than $2 million in fees to multiple law firms he had hired in that capacity. He had also sought payment of his current lawyer’s ongoing legal bill.
Ms. Spears’s lawyer, Mathew S. Rosengart, had objected to the fees.
Mr. Rosengart argued that, in particular, his client should not have to pay her father’s current legal bills, asserting in court papers that Mr. Spears had paid himself $6 million, improperly surveilled his daughter and engaged in financial misconduct during his tenure.
Mr. Spears has denied any wrongdoing. He held control over both Ms. Spears’s financial and personal affairs until September 2019, when he resigned as her personal conservator citing health issues, and was replaced by Jodi Montgomery, a professional in the field. A lawyer, Andrew M. Wallet, served as a co-conservator of her estate until he resigned in 2019.
Alex M. Weingarten, a lawyer for Mr. Spears, said he could not discuss the terms of the settlement because they are confidential but he agreed that the parties had resolved all outstanding issues. One of the filings stated that his client “is fully and finally discharged as Former Conservator of the Estate.”
“Jamie is thrilled all this is over,” Mr. Weingarten said. “He regrets the irresponsible and specious allegations made against him in public.”
In a statement on Friday, Mr. Rosengart said it had been an honor to represent Ms. Spears, who he referred to as a “brilliant and brave artist of historic and epic proportion.”
He added that, with the court filings, “her wish for freedom is now truly complete.”
“As she desired, her freedom now includes that she will no longer need to attend or be involved with court in this matter,” the statement concluded.
The legal activity left unclear whether Mr. Spears and Ms. Spears have made any progress toward reconciling their differences outside of court.
“Jamie loves his daughter very much,” Mr. Weingarten said. “He would love nothing more than to reconcile and be a family again. He has only ever acted in Britney’s best interests.”
It was a very quiet ending to what has been an angry and extremely public dispute between father and daughter, with Ms. Spears telling the court at one point that she wanted to see her father in jail. Mr. Spears has insisted in a legal filing and other settings that he deserved praise for his job managing his daughter’s mental health and substance issues.
A trial was set to start in May. The two sides had spent the last two and a half years in court fighting over depositions and discovery. Ms. Spears had paid more than $30 million in fees to dozens of law firms over the course of the conservatorship. One issue remaining unresolved is Ms. Spears’s former court-appointed lawyer Samuel D. Ingham III and an associated law firm’s request for fees incurred before Ms. Spears was allowed to choose her own lawyer in 2021.
Since leaving the conservatorship, Ms. Spears has been married and divorced, and published a successful memoir, “The Woman in Me,” that has sold more than 2 million copies and was a New York Times best seller.
Ms. Spears’s Las Vegas residency ended in 2017, and in 2019 she canceled a planned follow-up, announcing “an indefinite work hiatus.” She appeared alongside Elton John on a song in 2022, but has not seemed anxious to return to her pop career. “Pushing forward in my music career is not my focus at the moment,” Spears writes in her book. “It’s time for me not to be someone who other people want; it’s time to actually find myself.”
