By August 2020, Britney had petitioned the court to make Jodi her permanent sole conservator of person. “Britney is strongly opposed to having James return as conservator of her person. Rather, she strongly prefers to have Ms. Montgomery continue in that role as she has done for nearly a year,” read documents obtained by E! News.
That same month, Britney’s court-appointed attorney Samuel D. Ingham III filed new documents requesting Bessemer Trust Co. be appointed as co-conservator of her estate, with mom Lynne Spears filing documents of her own in support of the appointment.
Through her lawyer, Britney would go on to request greater transparency in the process surrounding her conservatorship. Responding to Jamie’s request to have the case sealed, her lawyer filed documents that September that read, “Britney strongly believes it is consistent not only with her personal best interests but also with good public policy generally that the decision to appoint a new conservator of her estate be made in as open and transparent a manner as possible. The sealing motion is supposedly being brought by her father to ‘protect’ Britney’s interests, but she is adamantly opposed to it.”
By November, the judge presiding over the case had approved Bessemer as co-conservator, while declining a petition to suspend Jamie’s role. During that hearing, Britney’s lawyer reportedly told the court, “My client has informed me that she is afraid of her father. She will not perform again if her father is in charge of her career.” Referring to his client as a “high-functioning conservatee,” Britney’s attorney argued that Britney deserves notice of the actions her father takes in his role, claiming she and Jamie hadn’t spoken in a long time.
The following month, the court extended Britney’s conservatorship until September 2021.