When in 2009 the media was awash with the Britney Spears vs Sam Lutfi lawsuit, not too many people were surprised that it came up because when in the second part of the 2000s the singer was seen around with Lutfi, many guessed without even knowing who he was that he was trouble waiting to start for her.
The trouble finally came in 2009 when Lufti dragged the pop singer to court claiming that she owed him money following an oral contract they had in 2007. Also, he filed a suit against Spears and her family over allegations of defamation. According to Lutfi who was the former manager of the singer, her father battered him while her mother libeled against him in her 2008 book.
The legal battle between Sam Lutfi and the Spears camp lasted for a massive seven years before it was settled. Here is all you need to know about the entire case.
Britney Spears vs Sam Lutfi Lawsuit
1. How it began
After three years of dating, Justin Timberlake and Spears ended their relationship in 2002 in a rather shocking way. According to Sam, this was the beginning of the decline for Britney Spears. More so, there was also the claim that the breakup left Spears depressed and angry.
She continued to fall into self-destruction and then came a mysterious man whose name would later be given as Sam Lutfi. Always in a baseball cap, he later declared himself to be the singer’s friend and manager who accompanied her everywhere she went.
While many suspected the man, there were those who considered him as her savior. That was until a restraining order by the parents of Spears was gotten against him from the singer when his reputation of violence and dubious ways in the industry came to light in 2008.
2. The lawsuit that followed
In 2008 after the Spears got a restraining order to have Lutfi away from their daughter, Lynne Spears went on to publish Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World, a memoir in which she described her daughter’s former manager as a predator who drugged and controlled her.
In response, Lutfi filed a lawsuit against Britney and her parents in 2009 claiming breach of contract on the side of the singer, battery against Jamie Parnell Spears whom he said punched him, while also slamming a libel case against Lynne Spears. He claimed that he had suicidal feelings after he received death threats following the publication of the book.
3. The accusations of drug use
The accusations from the camp of Britney Spears was that Lufti controlled and manipulated the singer using drugs, but the ex-manager claimed that Spears was addicted to drugs and he was the one who tried to get her out of it. He revealed that the singer’s infamous hair shaving in 2008 was because she was scared her hair could be used for a drug test and it would cost her the custody of her children.
According to him, he decided to work with her on conditions that she would leave drugs and allow him to come with drug-sniffing dogs to sniff her house among other conditions.
4. What Lutfi was requesting
According to Sam Lutfi, when he was hired by Spears, the deal was that the singer would pay him 15 percent of her earnings as her manager. It was revealed that between 2007 to 2008 which was in question, the singer made as much as $800,000 each month in the least even when she was not touring. This means that he was expecting to be paid $120,000 each of the month they worked together.
Adding it up, Lutfi was requesting to be paid into millions from the earnings of Spears for the period stated. However, Spear’s team argued that no deal like that was ever reached with Lutfi.
5. The Settlement
In 2012, the Britney Spears vs Sam Lutfi lawsuit was dismissed by a judge who claimed there was no evidence of any wrong against Lutfi by the Spears family. Though it was thrown out even before it went to a jury, the ex-manager who managed Courtney Love after he left Spears appealed the judgment.
In 2016, shortly before the trial began, reports emerged that the case between Spears and Lutfi was finally settled. The pop singer paid her ex-manager less than $500,000 in legal fees which was less than she would have spent in defending the suit if it had proceeded.