Initial draft February 2025; first update March 2025.
Addressing Fact Issues About the Rights of People with Mental Illness and the Exploitation of Mental Illness Stigma by Lawyers and Attorneys.
This website exists to provide practical information for individuals with mental illness disabilities and their families who face stigma-driven exploitation in federal and state courts. This page is not legal advice but rather an initial clearinghouse for basic public information available elsewhere.
This site has information regarding the exploitation of mental illness stigma and interference with Federal Constitutional Rights, which may implicate several federal statutes.
As a general overview, some but not all of the federal statutes that may inform an analysis are as follows.
18 U.S.C. § 241 prohibits two or more persons from conspiring to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in the free exercise or enjoyment of rights secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States.
42 U.S.C. § 1983 provides a civil remedy against individuals acting under color of state law who violate federally protected rights.
42 U.S.C. § 1985(2) prohibits conspiracies to intimidate, threaten, or injure parties, witnesses, or jurors in federal or state courts to obstruct the due course of justice.
42 U.S.C. § 1985(3) prohibits conspiracies to deprive any person or class of persons of the equal protection of the laws or equal privileges and immunities under the laws.
42 U.S.C. § 1986 imposes liability on individuals who have knowledge of a § 1985 conspiracy and the power to prevent it but fail to do so.
Understanding Protections Against Mental Illness Stigma Exploitation in Courts, Including How Attorney Exploitation of Stigma Violates Due Process, Equal Protection, and Fundamental Rights.
Individuals with mental illness disabilities are protected under federal and state laws that guarantee their right to due process, equal protection, and fair treatment in legal proceedings. The right to parent is a fundamental constitutional right, and courts are required to evaluate a parent’s fitness based on facts and evidence, not the exploitation of stigma or false facts about a person’s mental illness.
Recognizing Common Legal Abuses Involving Mental Illness Stigma.
Opposing parties and attorneys sometimes exploit mental illness stigma to discredit individuals, intimidate them, or manipulate legal outcomes. This can include false statements, presenting false evidence, making improper arguments that violate attorney rules of professional conduct (attorney ethics rules), or using the legal process to harass and wear down individuals with mental health conditions.
Documenting and Proving Stigma-Based Legal Abuse by Preserving Evidence, Building a Factual Record, and Using Specific Examples of Relevant Evidence That Courts Recognize.
To successfully challenge stigma-driven legal abuse by lawyers, individuals must document and preserve evidence that shows how their mental health was improperly used against them. This website provides practical guidance on what types of evidence are most useful, how to document incidents as they happen, and how to build a factual record that courts are more likely to accept as credible and as having caused error. Examples include preserving written communications, obtaining transcripts of biased statements made in court, and documenting patterns of discriminatory conduct.
Framing Facts to Counter Stigma Without Appearing Emotional or Subjective: Using Logical and Fact-Based Reasoning to Demonstrate How Stigma Exploitation Harmed Legal Proceedings.
Focus on facts, logic, and evidence rather than emotional appeals. Frame arguments based on facts, not emotion or concepts of fairness, that demonstrate with the attorney’s own writings and own court filings the attorney’s stigma-driven actions. Use objective evidence—ideally the attorney’s own written emails and written court filings.
Protecting The Fundamental Constitutional Right to Parental When An Attorney Is Exploiting Mental Illness and Mental Illness Stigma To Interfere With Constitutional Rights.
Parents with mental illness disabilities often face irrational animus—prejudiced and biased assumptions that somehow they are less capable of caring for their children just because they have a medically-diagnosed mental illness disability. Documenting the facts and presenting those facts to the court can provide the court with objective information and evidence of parenting ability, helping to ensure that courts consider all relevant facts rather than relying on stereotypes falsely spread by opposing counsel in any attempt to scare the court about mental illness.
Understanding the Context of Larger Systemic Issues, Including Why Prejudice and Bias Against Individuals With Mental Illness Still Persists in Courts—And the Legal Reforms That Are Needed to Reduce Attorney Exploitation of Mental Illness and Mental Illness Stigma.
Stigma against individuals with mental illness is a systemic issue nationwide that affects courts, attorneys, persons with mental illness, and their children. This website will explore why these irrational stigma-biases persist, how they impact legal outcomes and cause errors, and what legal and policy changes are needed to reduce stigma-driven legal abuse by attorneys. By understanding the larger context of these systemic issues, individuals with mental illness and their families and loved ones can better advocate for both their own rights and broader reforms that benefit everyone for the greater public good.
Resources for Legal and Emotional Support, Including Links to Advocacy Organizations, Legal Aid Services, and Tips for Finding Attorneys With Experience in Mental Illness-Related Cases
[this section is under construction Feb 2025]
This fact webpage is an evolving public interest resource that provides factual information to individuals with mental illness disabilities and their families. It focuses on developing arguments to mitigate mental illness misuse by lawyers by using the tools of written facts, objective evidence, and documentation. This website began with one case using this fact-based approach, but the goal of this website in the long run is to empower anyone facing similar challenges to protect themselves within the legal system, challenge stigma and bias, and ensure that their voices are heard, by focusing on the power of written evidence that documents the attorney’s exploitation of mental illness diagnoses and societal mental illness stigma.
Clearinghouse Document 1: 2025 Federal District Court Complaint: Wilson et al. v. Dana E. Prescott and Lani A. Remick et al., violations of federal civil rights statutes and federal RICO statute (Maine).
Excerpt of Complaint: Conspiracy Allegations re Exploiting Mental Illness and Mental Illness Stigma by Attorneys.
2:25-cv-00060-JCN
Filed in Federal District Court For the District of Maine
Wilson et al. v. Dana E. Prescott and Lani A. Remick et al., alleging violations of federal civil rights, federal constitutional rights, the federal RICO statute, and state law causes of action.
Conspiracy Allegations
352. On January 12, 2016 or shortly thereafter, Lani Anne Remick, Esq. began to pursue the unlawful means herein, for the reasons herein, including with Dana E. Prescott, Esq., MSW, PhD and the other co-Defendants. In so doing, Lani Remick and Dana Prescott began and perpetrated [two] conspiracies:
353. (First conspiracy): From on or about February 8, 2016 and ongoing … a conspiracy of Attorney Lani A. Remick, Attorney Dana E. Prescott, the law firm of Prescott Jamieson Murphy Law Group LLC in Saco, Maine doing business as “Your Southern Maine Legal Team”, and [other defendants] to … impair, obstruct, and defeat federally funded state court functions, by the schemes, manners, methods, enterprises, and predicate acts noticed herein, in violation of laws herein; in which Defendants knowingly conspired, agreed, joined, directed, caused, and effectuated with co-conspirators and others to defraud and injure the above victims; and in which Defendants knowingly made statements that they knew were false at the time they made them … including mental illness false medical statements [ m 1-177 ] noticed herein.
…
355. (Third conspiracy, Mental Illness Exploitation): From on or about February 8, 2016 and ongoing … a conspiracy of Attorney Lani Anne Remick, Esq., a lawyer, Attorney Dana E. Prescott, Esq., a lawyer and a licensed social worker … against (a) Plaintiff’s mental illness disability of bipolar 1, a disability that is protected by state and federal law; and (b) against Plaintiff’s rights under the Constitution of Maine and the Constitution of the United States; and to (c) impair, obstruct, and defeat federally funded state court functions by which United States statutory and constitutional rights are protected, by the schemes, manners, methods, enterprises, and predicate acts noticed herein, in violation of laws herein; in which Defendants knowingly conspired, agreed, joined, directed, caused, and effectuated with co-conspirators to interfere with and defraud Plaintiff of state and federal statutory rights, state constitutional rights, and rights secured by the Constitution of the United States, … in which Defendants knowingly made statements that they knew were false at the time they made them, including mental illness false medical statements [ m 1-177 ] noticed herein, in furtherance of the third conspiracy and its schemes.
Defendants’ Alleged Predicate Acts
356. Lawyer Dana Prescott’s and lawyer Lani Remick’s predicate acts alleged and noticed herein to effectuate their conspiracies, enterprises, and schemes include, but are not limited to, wire fraud, mail fraud, extortion, obstruction, witness tampering, honest services fraud, federal hate crimes, interference with constitutional rights, conspiracy, and perjury, each and all indictable crimes pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §§ 241, 249, 1341, 1346, 1349, 1503, 1512(b), 1512(c), 1621, 1623, 1956, and 1957.
[End of excerpt. See above for link to Complaint downloaded from PACER, the public federal court docket.]
The following is relevant context to the above excerpt and to the federal complaint:
Attorney Dana E. Prescott advertises to the general public in several states, and holds himself out to the general public, in the following manner. He advertises that he a licensed lawyer in good standing in Maine and Massachusetts; that his law firm is Prescott, Jamieson, & Murphy Law Group in Saco, Maine; that his firm is “Your Southern Maine Legal Team”; that he has a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree from Boston College (2005); that he has a Ph.D. in social work from Simmons University (2014); that he is also licensed as a Social Worker (LMSW / MSW / LCSW) in Maine since 2005 (Maine License #LM10173); that he is a Fellow of both an American and an International Academy of Lawyers (AAML and IAFL); that he is an award-winning President of a National Organization of Social Workers (NOFSW); that he is adjunct faculty at Boston College School of Social Work; that he is the past President of New England and Maine State Bar Associations.
Disclaimer: This fact page is about matters of public interest regarding the exploitation of mental illness and the exploitation of mental illness stigma by attorneys. It does not provide legal information and it does not provide legal advice. Please consult lawyer referral services in your state (such as the state bar association in your state) or consult with a qualified licensed attorney in your state. Please also see the general disclaimer below.