I am an attorney, and I do conservatorships. While Dad sounds like a peach (not), and there are a lot of things that don’t make a lot of sense, I assure you we don’t know enough to even begin to understand whether the conservatorship is appropriate, whether her court appointed attorney is doing his job, and what Ms. Spears needs. I have no doubt the media is getting details wrong. It is sad an inappropriate that Ms. Spears’ situation is on full but distorted display for us to judge and speculate about. She deserves better.
I will say that the mental health system in California profoundly fails people and the family who wants to help them every day. Conservatorship law is horribly, tragically flawed. To the extent her case sheds a light on its problems, that is a good thing. But it feels like she is being exploited all the more right now by the media.