Former NFL lineman Michael Oher pushed the topic of conservatorships back into the public spotlight this week, after filing for an end to a conservatorship that he claims he was tricked into.

Conservatorships are a controversial legal measure that allows a court-designated individual to make financial, personal, and medical decisions on behalf of an adult or child. Most people under conservatorship are children, elderly, or severely mentally disabled. The topic first rose to prominence in 2021, when pop star Britney Spears sought an end to her 13-year conservatorship.

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Here is all you need to know about conservatorships and the two major legal cases dominated by them:

What is a conservatorship and how is it appointed?

Conservatorships are designed for people who suffer from a mental, psychological, or emotional disability that prevents them from making decisions and will suffer harm because they cannot make those decisions. The laws regarding conservatorships differ from state to state, but a petition must be filed in a court, which outlines why the conservatee cannot manage their own affairs. This then prompts the court to investigate whether the conservatee is truly incapacitated and if the appointment of a conservator is necessary, according to Family Caregiver Alliance.

An investigator would then follow the case every few years to determine whether a conservatorship is still warranted. In the case of Spears, however, her conservatorship was marked as "indefinite."

There are two different forms of conservatorships. An estate conservatorship merely handles large financial transactions. But a conservatorship of the person legally controls the day-to-day activities of the conservatee, including when and what they eat, where they live, and their transportation.

Approximately 1.3 million adults in the United States were under some form of conservatorship as of 2021, according to the Guardian, but it is most common among the elderly and children.

Michael Oher:

Oher, a former offensive lineman who served as the inspiration behind the book and film The Blind Side, said he was tricked into believing the forms he signed at 18 years old were part of his legal adoption process, and believed he was becoming an official member of the Tuohy family. But in February, he allegedly found forms that revealed the conservatorship without an adoption.

The conservatorship gave the Tuohy family the power to make financial decisions for him, and the power to sign contracts for him, including education and sports contracts. Oher claimed the conservatorship gave the Tuohy family the power to sign a movie deal with a major studio that did not give him any royalties.

"Any decision that [Oher] makes on his own — driver's license, checking account, credit cards, loans, financing, deal contracts, whatever — would have been null and void because by getting a conservatorship, the court is basically saying he doesn't have the capacity to make those decisions on his own," New York-based conservatorship and estate planning attorney Jeffrey Asher told Today.

New York-based trusts and estates attorney Ashwani Prabhakar acknowledged that laws regarding conservatorships differ from state to state, but said an underlying allegation that a person cannot make certain decisions needs to be proven nationwide.

"It should be a high bar to me," Prabhakar said. "This person should have their human rights for self-determination taken away and given to the person who's petitioning because this incapacitated person can't handle it on their own."

Britney Spears:

Spears was under a conservatorship for 13 years, starting at the age of 26. A judge placed her under the care of her father Jamie Spears, and an attorney. She was placed under an estate conservatorship, which handled her finances, and a personal conservatorship, which was overseen by her father, who oversaw her day-to-day activities and even controlled where she could live.

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The conservatorship was ordered in 2008 after several questionable antics by the pop star appeared in tabloids, including shaving her head after the loss of an aunt, and being placed under multiple psychiatric holds. Spears had also lost custody of her two sons prior to the order. In Spears's case, the conservatorship was marked as "indefinite."

Spears was finally released from the conservatorship in 2021.