Britney Spears‘ lawyer is asking to quit after the singer reportedly skipped her second scheduled deposition hearing.

Sorrell Trope of the family law firm Trope and Trope started representing Britney in her ongoing custody case in September after her previous lawyer Laura Wasser dumped her as a client. After Wasser, Britney initially hired the firm Freid & Goldsman to represent her before firing them after just two days in favour of Trope.

According to legal papers filed on Wednesday, Trope and Trope have requested to withdraw themselves from the case after a “breakdown in communications” between themselves and the star “making further representation of her interests impossible.”

Inside sources expanded on this, explaining that Britney refused to listen to her legal team’s advice and that her behaviour was damaging their case. A source told Us Weekly: “They couldn’t reign her in. No one can, and it’s an embarrassment in front of the judge.”

A second source told TMZ that Britney’s deposition hearing with Kevin Federline’s legal team headed by Mark Vincent Kaplan was scheduled to take place yesterday and when Britney failed to attend, Trope and Trope felt they had no choice but to back out of the case: “Her whole life has become insane and it’s impossible for anyone to get through to her.”

After the news broke of their decision, Trope explained that they will continue to represent Britney for at least the next few weeks: “A lawyer cannot simply withdraw from a case. We will ask the court to relieve us, which will be heard [in court] within a month’s time.”

The next scheduled hearing in the custody case will take place on 19th February but Britney must give a deposition before then. A further inside source told OK magazine: “If she fails to [do so], Mark Vincent Kaplan will likely ask the judge to award Kevin complete and permanent custody of Sean Preston and Jayden James.”

If that’s not awarded, “Kevin’s lawyer will probably ask for the trial to go ahead as planned on April 9, but without allowing Britney’s team to depose anymore witnesses for Kevin’s side of the case.”

“There’s no way Kaplan will allow Kevin to be deposed without Britney having first completed her court-ordered deposition.”

Britney spent the early hours of yesterday morning in a hotel in Palm Springs with paparazzi boyfling Adnan Ghalib and was spotted driving erratically and fast as she returning to her home in Beverly Hills later in the day.

UPDATE: Britney’s deposition was rescheduled for today and arrived at Mark Vincent Kaplan’s office around noon local time today to begin the questioning session.