Advice regarding extreme situation

J

JDenton

New Member
Jurisdiction
British Columbia
Not sure if this is the best sub-forum for this; if it isn't, please re-direct me.

Okay so this story might sound like a fever dream to some people, but if anyone is willing to take it seriously I could use some advice. The condensed version is as follows: Several years ago I was drugged and severely abused. Following this incident I experienced a profound dissociative fugue. Upon recovering from this, I became suspicious of the people I was living with, and eventually began to question their interpretation of what occurred. I agreed to go to the hospital with them and was diagnosed with schizophrenia and briefly committed before being released as an involuntary patient on extended leave. My treatment continued for ~4 years (despite no presentation of psychotic symptoms apart from transient suspicion at the cause of the fugue state, and during which I remained fully functional as an adult, studying and/or working full time) until one psychiatrist finally discharged me completely after tapering me off the medication on his own initiative.
More recently it has come to my attention that footage of this abuse has been leaked online in some manner, and that the actual motive for the assault was to monetize it by selling it on unlisted websites. I do not currently have possession of this footage, but am looking into methods to search for it (and am pretty sure it does in fact exist). It is also extremely likely that this ordeal involved substantial cooperation with local law enforcement and doctors (at least initially), though to what extent I'm not entirely sure. Since being discharged and discontinuing the medication I have experienced no decline in functioning or psychotic symptoms.
So there's the whole story. Sounds like something out of a mystery novel but it is what it is. My legal questions are:
1. How can I take legal action in a civil suit against those who committed the assault initially or disseminated it (assuming I recover the footage)?
2. How can I take legal action against the misdiagnosis? I have already looked into malpractice suits but unfortunately the direct effects of the treatment were not damaging enough for such an avenue to be financially viable. I don't know if human rights laws apply in some manner, given the rest of the details.
I can answer any other questions regarding my experience if necessary.
 
I think you are out of luck because the statute of limitations for that kind of lawsuit in BC appears to be two years under the 2013 changes in the law.

Limitation Act

The new Limitation Act replaces and repeals the former Limitation Act and makes the law easier to understand, and brings B.C.’s law more in line with other provinces.
www2.gov.bc.ca

Look into that further.

Bottom line though, you have recovered from your ordeal and are fully functioning. Seeking to punish the bad people is likely to make things emotionally worse for you. Give up the pursuit. Get on with your life.
 
adjusterjack said:
I think you are out of luck because the statute of limitations for that kind of lawsuit in BC appears to be two years under the 2013 changes in the law.

Limitation Act

The new Limitation Act replaces and repeals the former Limitation Act and makes the law easier to understand, and brings B.C.’s law more in line with other provinces.
www2.gov.bc.ca

Look into that further.

Bottom line though, you have recovered from your ordeal and are fully functioning. Seeking to punish the bad people is likely to make things emotionally worse for you. Give up the pursuit. Get on with your life.
Click to expand...
You mean for the misdiagnosis, correct?

Regarding the footage, given that it still exists to this day, could I argue that it is continually damaging? Obviously there would be a criminal element as well if I could find hard evidence.
 
JDenton said:
Regarding the footage, given that it still exists to this day, could I argue that it is continually damaging? Obviously there would be a criminal element as well if I could find hard evidence.
Click to expand...

As you've evidently not suffered any significant harm so far from the incident I doubt you'll ever have enough in damages to sue for the alleged assault even if the statute of limitations could be extended due to a claim of continuing harm. Until you find the video (if you ever do) you're not likely to know exactly what happened and, importantly, who were the people that did it. Speculation won't be enough to get you in the courthouse door. Consult an attorney in BC who handles personal injury claims to see if you have anything worthwhile to pursue.
 
Tax Counsel said:
As you've evidently not suffered any significant harm so far from the incident I doubt you'll ever have enough in damages to sue for the alleged assault even if the statute of limitations could be extended due to a claim of continuing harm. Until you find the video (if you ever do) you're not likely to know exactly what happened and, importantly, who were the people that did it. Speculation won't be enough to get you in the courthouse door. Consult an attorney in BC who handles personal injury claims to see if you have anything worthwhile to pursue.
Click to expand...
I mean the psychological damage has been about as extreme as that category of damage can be honestly, but I don't know how that holds up legally. And I do actually have a pretty precise idea of what happened and some subset of who was involved but nothing hard to substantiate it yet.

To ask a more general question, though (assuming that's appropriate, presumably people here have experience with these kinds of situations), has anyone ever heard of this kind of thing happening? From what I've managed to piece together it seems like there's basically some kind of trafficking ring embedded in "the system" (at least locally). I wouldn't have guessed corruption that extreme existed in Canada, especially in a form this brutish.

Another interesting note - I phoned a number of law firms in BC to inquire about the medical malpractice angle and a couple of them clearly had some knowledge of my situation beyond what I'd told their secretary, with one even commenting in a resigned and knowing tone that "I'd been wronged" but that he was powerless to do anything about it. Unbelievable.
 
First, this site only deals with U.S. legal issues.

Second, I encourage you to seek help from a mental health professional.

Third...

JDenton said:
To ask a more general question, though (assuming that's appropriate, presumably people here have experience with these kinds of situations), has anyone ever heard of this kind of thing happening?
Click to expand...

I have no idea what "this kind of thing" means. I've been posting on legal message boards for the better part of the last quarter century (as of the other two folks who responded here). We see posts like yours all the time. They're always just as vague as yours. "I was drugged and severely abused." By whom? How? Why? You became aware that footage is online, but then you wrote that you're only "pretty sure" it exists. You seem to be blaming some sort of "system," but you provided no explanation what that means. There's nothing that folks on the internet can do for you.
 
zddoodah said:
First, this site only deals with U.S. legal issues.

Second, I encourage you to seek help from a mental health professional.

Third...



I have no idea what "this kind of thing" means. I've been posting on legal message boards for the better part of the last quarter century (as of the other two folks who responded here). We see posts like yours all the time. They're always just as vague as yours. "I was drugged and severely abused." By whom? How? Why? You became aware that footage is online, but then you wrote that you're only "pretty sure" it exists. You seem to be blaming some sort of "system," but you provided no explanation what that means. There's nothing that folks on the internet can do for you.
Click to expand...
Oh I wasn't aware it was for US issues only - Canadian provinces were listed in the drop-down menu for location so I assumed you took questions from other countries as well (and it looks like a couple people already answered with BC-specific advice).

Yeah I was deliberately sparse on details in my post because I didn't want to overwhelm readers with massive paragraphs, I actually have far more precise answers to all those questions. The point wasn't really to convince internet strangers of the veracity of my story though but to figure out what kind of legal options I have, assuming it were true, since it seems to span several legal domains.
 
JDenton said:
Oh I wasn't aware it was for US issues only - Canadian provinces were listed in the drop-down menu for location so I assumed you took questions from other countries as well (and it looks like a couple people already answered with BC-specific advice).

Yeah I was deliberately sparse on details in my post because I didn't want to overwhelm readers with massive paragraphs, I actually have far more precise answers to all those questions. The point wasn't really to convince internet strangers of the veracity of my story though but to figure out what kind of legal options I have, assuming it were true, since it seems to span several legal domains.
Click to expand...
The drop down is a default of this sites program. When joining the site there are terms of service that outline how this site works and lets people know it is for US legal issues.
 
JDenton said:
Oh I wasn't aware it was for US issues only - Canadian provinces were listed in the drop-down menu for location so I assumed you took questions from other countries as well (and it looks like a couple people already answered with BC-specific advice).
Click to expand...
That is, unfortunately, the stock configuration of this forum software. You haven't been the first to be unaware, nor will you be the last.
 

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