Los Angeles: An attorney who claims to represent Britney Spears has filed papers to move her conservatorship case from the Los Angeles County Superior Court to federal court, but legal experts question whether his legal strategy is viable and whether he can represent the troubled pop star at all.

In a document filed on Thursday in US District Court in Los Angeles, attorney Jon Eardley writes that Spears has not "received the benefit of a single hearing before the court," and "is being confined by the conservator to the private prison of her own home," in violation of her civil rights.

After more than a year of bizarre behaviour and two stints in a psychiatric hospital this year, Spears was placed under a conservatorship by a Superior Court commissioner at the beginning of February. Conservatorships are established when a court determines someone cannot take care of themselves or their affairs.

In his federal court filing, Eardley asks "whether an adult child may be subjected by her parents to their complete and total control" and claims her conservators - her father, James Spears, and attorney Andrew Wallet - control what prescription medications she takes.

Calls for comment to Eardley s phone numbers in Washington, DC, Jericho, New York, and Whittier, California. were not returned on Thursday or yesterday.

Commissioner Reva Goetz has found that under the terms of the conservatorship, Britney Spears lacks the capacity to hire her own lawyer without the approval of her conservators.