Bill to end conservatorship abuse introduced in US House of Representatives

The US House of Representatives, on Wednesday, introduced a bill to end conservatorship abuse, inspired by the Hollywood singer Britney Spears’ fight to end her conservatorship.

The Freedom and Right to Emancipate from Exploitation (Free) Act will allow a person, who is bound by a conservatorship, to file a petition to replace their court-appointed private conservator with a public conservator. They could also replace the court-appointed conservator with a family member or private agent without having to prove abuse.

According to Guardian, the bill was introduced by Republican Nancy Mace and Democrat Charlie Crist. The bill would offer state funding for caseworkers to oversee conservatorships.

The state who will be accepting the funds would require caseworkers and public guardians to make their finances transparent and provide annual reports on conservatorships.

“Abusive conservatorships can be an unending nightmare, and tragically we don’t know how many people are being held captive against their will under the broken guardianship system. Under the Free Act, we would free Britney along with the countless numbers of seniors and persons with disabilities being abused and exploited by the broken system,” Guardian quoted Christ as saying.

“To see a woman like Britney Spears have her most basic human rights permanently stripped away from her under the guise of ‘protection’ should be illegal,” said Mace.

Britney, earlier in June, had filed a petition in a Los Angeles court to end the conservatorship that has controlled her personal life, career and finances since 2008.

She also accused her father, Jamie Spears of abuse and demanded that he “should be in jail”.

The pop star was victorious last week when the court allowed her to appoint her own representation for the first time in the history of her arrangement. Mathew Rosengart replaced Ingham, who was her previous lawyer.

The new lawyer said that he is working “aggressively and expeditiously” to remove Jamie Spears as conservator “unless he resigns first”.

To celebrate Rosengart’s appointment, Britney used the hashtag #FreeBritney for the first time in an Instagram post.