One last thought. I’m not a lawyer. If I were, however, & I were advising the Pelletiers, here’s what I’d tell them. Forget about DSS for the time being. First we will sue the living daylights out of the doctors & hospital that initially misdiagnosed Justina & precipitated this year-plus multitiered nightmare. We will Clean Their Clocks. Afterward, with that resounding victory in hand, we will turn our sites on DSS.
Perhaps their commanding rout of the medical profession will give sufficient momentum to prevail against the DSS. But even if it doesn’t, they will hardly emerge penniless. Justina was seriously misdiagnosed & her parents were slandered. Significant damage was done. This family will not emerge from their legal forays empty handed. That is a foregone conclusion.
I hope you’re right.
Forget the hospital -- Children's is not-for-profit Harvard teaching hospital, and Massachusetts has a "charitable cap" of $20,000 damages for non profits. The psychiatry doctors at Children's should be fair game, however. I don't know what sovereign immunity issues would be involved in suing DCF (if we had a honest AG, there would have been a criminal investigation long ago!).
If the case is over(?), does that mean the gag order imposed on her Tufts doctors is automatically lifted?