Britney Spears’s Father to Exit Conservatorship

Britney Spears’s father said in a new court filing he would step down at some point from the helm of the controversial conservatorship that has governed the pop star’s personal life and roughly $60 million estate for the last 13 years.

The court documents, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday, come weeks after the 39-year-old star asked a judge presiding over the case to remove her father, James P. Spears, calling the conservatorship “abusive.”

A new lawyer for Ms. Spears, Mathew Rosengart, has moved aggressively in recent weeks to remove or suspend Mr. Spears. It is part of a broader effort to terminate the conservatorship over Ms. Spears, an obscure legal arrangement that has been in place since 2008 when it was instituted for her protection due to mental-health issues and potential substance abuse. Ms. Spears acknowledged its necessity at the time.

Mr. Spears maintained that there are “no actual grounds for suspending or removing” him, but said that he “does not believe a public battle with his daughter over his continuing service as her conservator would be in her best interests.”

“There are no urgent circumstances justifying Mr. Spears’s immediate suspension,” the filing states. “It is highly debatable whether a change in conservator at this time would be in Ms. Spears’s best interests.”