On the eve of the hearing to determine who controls her life, Britney Spears can't get a meeting with her court-appointed attorney, sources say. A judge is scheduled to decide whether to let Spears' father James keep control of her affairs when his temporary conservatorship over his daughter runs out tomorrow.

The insider tells Radar that Spears was frantic on Monday evening to meet with court-appointed lawyer Samuel Ingham but didn't have a car or a phone to reach him from the Millennium Dance Studios in North Hollywood, where she went to brush up and teach a class of eight kids (ages 4 to 9) moves such as "the fish," "the swim," and "the choo-choo train." But she's being held under such tight control that she actually begged the parents of the kids she was teaching to make calls to her lawyer on her behalf, a source tells Radar. "She wants to prove to him she's competent enough to hire her own attorney," the source says.

If Ingham's previous statements are any indication, he might not be incredibly sympathetic to his client's plight. "She lacks the capacity to retain counsel," Ingham said last week after meeting with Spears.

A message left at Ingham's Beverly Hills office was not immediately returned.