(NO) TROUBLE FOR ME

Britney Can Skip Deposition by Dad’s Lawyers, Judge Rules

The star’s lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, said she would be re-traumatized if made to answer questions under oath.

Britney Spears will not have to answer questions from her father’s legal team under oath, a Los Angeles judge ruled Wednesday. The pop star’s attorney, Mathew Rosengart, argued that his client had been “traumatized” by her 13-year conservatorship, and speaking under oath would only serve to re-traumatize her. What’s more, Spears would have little relevant information to contribute, Rosengart added, saying that the attempt to force her to speak was “retaliatory.” Judge Brenda Penny ruled that Spears’ answers would not be needed for her father, Jamie Spears, to effectively argue a defense. Relevant testimony, she said, could be gleaned from other sources. The decision comes less than a month after Jamie’s attorney, Alex Weingarten, asked to depose Britney on the “incendiary allegations of various factual matters” she has made over social media about her father, who managed her conservatorship. Wednesday’s order comes as a blow to the elder Spears, as did Penny’s ruling earlier this month that compels Jamie to sit for questioning by mid-August about his handling of his daughter’s estate, as well as claims that he surveilled her.