Mental illness and Law....what rights does one have?

even if you find an attorney to take your case, he will run up fees that when done you will end up with nothing

The law doesn't always provide the best solution, nor always the right one. The attorney you spoke to may not have been able to come up with a cause of action that would provide you a remedy.

That might be because there isn't one, or because that attorney was not experienced enough, or wasn't looking at the problem the right way. Every situation is very factually dependent, and the legal solutions aren't always obvious.

Speak to another attorney. Contact your local county or state bar association for referrals. Another attorney might give you a different answer.

But also consider the possibility that, because of the particular legal operative facts involved in your case, there might not be an available remedy. Even if you were harmed by what happened. It's a sad truth that justice isn't always available for every wrong.

Generally speaking, the government and persons acting as "good samaritans" have a certain degree of immunity from liability for good-faith actions taken to assist those who, for one reason or another, can't take care of themselves. People who are temporarily out of control due to mental illness, and medically unstable, causing symptoms that mirror mental illnesses are examples of such people.

If you were taken to a hospital against your will, then it was most probably because a doctor, police officer, judge, or someone who signed off on a committal form that the laws of your state allow to care for people who don't have the mental capacity (whether permanant or temporary) to act in their own best interests. In cases like these, your rights would be delineated by state law for your situation and would be available for you to read on a website or your local library.

It is quite possible that whatever caused you to go to the hospital in the first place is what is causing your problems now. Why seek legal action against people who were trying to help you? It is quite possible that you are alive right now because of these people.

If you have evidence that these people mistreated you, then you have a cause of action. From what you have told me though, you have spoken to a number of attorneys who have told you that you do not.

You can keep looking til you find an attorney who agrees with you and agrees to take your case on contingency, but as malpractice cases are expensive, with heavy up-front costs, your attorney would have to pay those initially. He's not going to want to do that if he even thinks he has a chance of losing.

Hope this helps you, but you may want to forget the whole thing.

Dad

You can sue anyone! Your problem is going to be what you mentioned "MONEY". Unless you can find a good criminal or civil Attorney that would take your cas Pro-bono you don't have much choice. I would put this information out to the news, there is no more powerful entity! You might even want to contact the big radio celebs like G. Gordon Liddy to see if they can put your message out.