Britney Spears is afraid of her father and will not resume her career so long as he has power over it, her attorney said in court on Tuesday.

Los Angeles superior court judge Brenda Penny declined to suspend James Spears from his central role in the court conservatorship that has controlled his daughter’s life and career for 12 years, as Britney Spears’ attorney Samuel D Ingham III requested at the contentious hearing. But the judge said she would consider future petitions for his suspension or outright removal, which Ingham plans to file.

“My client has informed me that she is afraid of her father,” Ingham told the judge. “She will not perform again if her father is in charge of her career.”

The pop star has been on an indefinite work hiatus since early 2019.

James Spears’ attorney, Vivian Lee Thoreen, defended what she said was his perfect record in his run as his daughter’s conservator, which has seen her net worth go from in debt to well over $60m.

Thoreen argued that the disruption caused by his removal would do her the very harm the suspension is meant to prevent.

“I don’t believe there is a shred of evidence to support my client’s suspension,” she said.

Thoreen also objected to Ingham’s statements about the father-daughter relationship as inadmissible hearsay.

The judge did approve that a corporate fiduciary, the Bessemer Trust, will now serve as co-conservator over Spears’ estate along with her father, which the singer had requested.

Most of the attorneys involved, along with Britney Spears’ parents, took part in the hearing via phone and videoconference. The pop star did not attend in any form.

The conservatorship, known in many US states as a guardianship, began in 2008 when Spears was struggling with her mental health, often publicly. The arrangements are normally limited to people with severely diminished ability to make decisions for themselves, and are meant to be temporary, but Spears, 38, has remained under court control longer than anyone expected.

Ingham on Tuesday called her a “high-functioning conservatee” who deserves at least notice of the actions her father is taking, which he has declined to provide. Ingham said Spears has not spoken to her father in a very long time.

Thoreen argued that the reason father and daughter have not communicated is because Ingham has prevented it.

Britney Spears has acknowledged that the conservatorship was necessary when it began, and probably saved her career, and she remained silent both in public and in court for nearly all of its existence, with her attorney acting mostly as a neutral observer.

But starting in August she began publicly seeking to choose who had power over her, asking for greater transparency in the court’s often secret moves, and even declaring that she was sympathetic to fans who have increasingly demanded in protests and online posts that those in control must #FreeBritney.

Dozens of those fans protested outside the downtown Los Angeles courthouse as they do for every Spears hearing, and a few, wearing #FreeBritney face masks, sat in the courtroom that was sparsely attended because of coronavirus spacing guidelines.