There are recent signs, in fact, that the conservators are now acknowledging the great progress she has made. After successfully fighting to keep her from testifying in at least three prior lawsuits — (a probate judge had previously agreed that doing so could cause her “irreparable harm”) — Ms. Spears’s conservators allowed her to testify on Monday in a case filed against her by a former self-described manager. They agreed that “giving such testimony is not likely to cause harm to her,” according to court papers.
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Neither the conservators nor her managers or lawyers will discuss her status, and Ms. Spears did not respond to multiple requests seeking an interview.
While it is not possible to get an accurate sense of someone’s mental state from afar, Ms. Spears’s friends and former associates said in interviews that, for her, the conservatorship has become an accepted fact of life — not a cage but a protective bubble that allows her to worry about her true passions: music and her children.
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Since the conservatorship began, some restrictions have been eased. More far-reaching rollbacks were discussed several years ago but never occurred, according to a person who has been involved in Ms. Spears’s care who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
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Ultimately some of the people who would help to decide whether to end it are the conservators and doctors who now help oversee it, many of whom receive fees from Ms. Spears’s estate for their work on her behalf.
Ms. Spears’s status and progress are measured by a court investigator for her case, who is assigned to file reports on her progress once every other year. (Those under conservatorship are not required to regularly appear in front of a judge after their conservators are appointed.)
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There has been some debate in California over whether court-appointed lawyers do enough to advocate the rights of those under conservatorship. Just last year, the state’s Senate Committee on Judiciary noted in a report: “In theory the court-appointed counsel should be arguing on the proposed conservatee’s behalf for a less-restrictive alternative to conservatorship whenever possible.”
Mr. Ingham has been awarded more than $2 million in fees for his work on Ms. Spears’s behalf since 2008. This is in addition to the $6.9 million paid from the estate to the conservators and other lawyers who have helped manage Ms. Spears’s affairs under the current arrangement. Ms. Spears has never publicly questioned any of these payments, but critics of the process have.
“As long as she is bringing in so much money and as long as the lawyers and conservators are getting paid, there is little incentive to end it,” said Elaine Renoire, president of the National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse, an advocacy group. “Usually, the conservatorship just keeps going unless the conservatee makes a fuss or the family does.”
Quelle:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/ar...-own.html?_r=0