Spears Pal Strikes Back Against Dad

Britney Spears' former manager and pal Sam Lutfi is trying to liberate her from her family's control by getting her case moved from Los Angeles to federal court, E! reports.  He's arguing in a petition that Jamie Spears is unfit to oversee his daughter's life and that she's being unfairly denied the right to see friends, make phone calls, drive her car, receive mail, and have access to her money. "Sam is at war with Jamie. This is his first strike," a Spears insider told E! yesterday.

Those are pretty much the same charges her family lobbed at Lufti earlier in getting a restraining order against him, which he says has never been served. Observers say it's a long shot. "The fed court will not take jurisdiction of this case. That is so far-fetched," said one lawyer. "Anyone who's under a conservatorship can argue that they've lost their civil rights," points out another. "That's what a conservatorship does."  "She has basically conveyed that she doesn't want to be in her family's control," says Lufti's PR guy. (More Britney Spears stories.)