Amanda Bynes Files to End Conservatorship After Almost 9 Years

By Stephen Andrew

Amanda Bynes has filed to end her legal conservatorship after almost nine years. Page Six reports that, on Tuesday, attorneys for the 35-year-old former actress submitted a petition to the Ventura County Superior Court, requesting that the conservatorship of her person, as well as the one over her estate, be terminated. A hearing has reportedly been scheduled for March 22.

Page Six went on to report that, in addition to the petition, Bynes also filed a capacity declaration. This is something the state of California requires to have updated records about in all conservatorship cases, as it is related to the "conservatee's mental state." This is something that can be submitted from a physician, psychologist or "religious healing practitioner." Bynes' attorney, David A. Esquibias, issued a statement to People on Friday, saying, "Amanda wishes to terminate her conservatorship. She believes her condition is improved and protection of the court is no longer necessary."

Bynes was placed under a conservatorship in August 2013, at the age of 27. Her mother, Lynn Bynes, was made her legal conservator and given legal control of all Bynes' personal, medical and financial decisions. This came after the actress allegedly started a small fire in a stranger's driveway and was subsequently hospitalized on an involuntary psychiatric hold. The following year, Bynes tweeted that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, one month after she was placed on a second 5150 hold.

Notably, Bynes' request to end her conservatorship comes just over three months after pop star Britney Spears' longtime conservatorship officially ended, on Nov. 12, bringing to an end more than a decade of the singer not being legally allowed to make certain types of autonomous decisions for herself, including those regarding her health and finances. "As of today, effective immediately, the conservatorship has been terminated as both the person and the estate," Mathew Rosengart, Spears' attorney, said at the time outside the courthouse, per CNN, after the ruling was made. "This is a monumental day for Britney Spears. What's next for Britney, and this is the first time this could be said for about a decade, is up to one person, Britney."

Rosengart later came out and called for Spears' father, Jamie, to be investigated for how he managed his daughter's conservatorship over the years. "I used to be a federal prosecutor, now I'm just a private attorney," Rosengart stated, according to Vulture. "I don't have criminal investigative powers. What happens [from] there will be up to law enforcement." Rosengart went on to accuse Jamie of giving himself a massive salary for being Spears' conservator. "He took a salary from the estate," the lawyer claimed. "He took a percentage of his daughter's earnings in Las Vegas and otherwise."

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