Los Angeles Superior Court judge Brenda Penny has allowed Britney Spears to hire her own lawyer in the long drawn-out battle over her conservatorship. The pop star has chosen Mathew S. Rosengart, a prominent Hollywood lawyer and former federal prosecutor, to take up her case.

The ruling was praised by fans outside the courthouse.

Rosengart requested that Ms. Spears's father, Jamie, step down as her conservator, but then was rejected.

"We will be moving promptly and aggressively for his removal," Mr Rosengart said outside the courthouse. "The question remains, why is he involved?"

Spears, taking part in the hearing by phone, told the judge she approved of Mr Rosengart after several conversations with him.

"I'm here to press charges. I'm angry and I will go there," the singer said over a lawyer's phone.

"I have to get rid of my dad and charge him with conservatorship abuse," she added.

Spears posted a video on social media after the hearing of her horseback riding and doing cartwheels.

She thanked those who have supported her and said she now had "real representation".

"Thank you to my fans who are supporting me," she wrote on Twitter.

"You have no idea what it means to me to be supported by such awesome fans."

The hearing came three weeks after Ms Spears dramatically addressed the court for the first time in open session, telling Judge Penny she was being forced to take medication and use an intrauterine device for birth control, said she was not allowed to marry her boyfriend, and said she wanted to own her own money.

"I just want my life back," she said on June 23.

Spears, 38, remains under a “legal conservatorship” which renders the singer unable to make independent decisions concerning her personal life and career. A conservatorship is granted when a person is deemed unable to make their own decisions, typically because of mental incapacity. This is following an alleged “breakdown” in 2007, when the musician has been under her father Jamie’s guardianship since 2008.

Read: https://thelookout.com.ph/article/what-is-the-freebritney-movement