Britney's Dad Gets More Fire Power

Fri., Feb. 8, 2008 6:34 PM PST by Natalie Finn

First, Jamie Spears was allowed to change the locks, now he has the go-ahead to start cleaning house.

A court commissioner has granted Britney's dad the authority to fire her business manager, Howard Grossman.

The "Toxic" songstress had been trying to have Grossman installed as her temporary conservator, along with Northern Trust Bank, but according to court documents released Friday, her presumably soon to be ex-employee has been ordered to turn "all documents, records and assets relating to Britney Spears" over to Jamie.

The decision appears to have been made Thursday during an emergency hearing on a motion filed by Jamie's coconservator, attorney Andrew Wallet.

The proceedings were closed, but a court spokesman said that Wallet's motion was approved, and sources told E! News Jamie's control over his daughter's welfare and finances would still be in place until at least Feb. 14, the date of the next hearing.

Britney was represented on Thursday by court-appointed attorney Samuel Ingham, because after she was committed to the psych ward at UCLA Medical Center on Jan. 31, she was ruled unfit to choose her own counsel.

Loeb & Loeb attorney Adam Streisand, whom the troubled songstress tried to retain over the weekend while she was hospitalized in order to protest the appointment of her dad as conservator, said the court's ruling prevented him from accepting the job.

But while it isn't so easy to be hired by Britney these days, it's apparently just as challenging as ever to actually represent her.

The legal team that's been handling Britney's custody battle is reportedly once again aiming to step down as her counsel, according to TMZ.

A hearing on a second motion filed by the Beverly Hills law firm of Trope and Trope to be removed from the case has been scheduled for Mar. 10.

The legal eagles, headed up by Spears' main man, Sorrell Trope, first asked to be relieved on Jan. 2, the same day the divorcé skipped an appointment to be deposed by Kevin Federline's camp and barely 24 hours before her bizarre standoff with police that resulted in her first involuntary hospitalization of the year.

At the time, Trope cited a "breakdown in communications...making further representation of her interests impossible."

Trope had no comment upon learning that she was facing off with cops and paramedics at her gated abode, but he withdrew his request to be relieved as counsel a few weeks later. No explanation was given, only a confirmation from cocounsel Anne Kiley that the firm was staying on.

It's rumored that Spears' family is looking to bring her pre-Trope attorney, Laura Wasser, back into the fold, but it remains unclear how Spears' current lack of decision-making prowess is going to affect her status in family court.