06 May 2011

ACC doctor backs down on legal action

An article from the New Zealand Herald by Claire Trevett
Senior ACC clinician Dr Peter Jansen has dropped his legal action for defamation against an ACC sexual abuse claimant.
Dr Jansen, the lead clinician in the sensitive claims unit, was suing the woman - known as Jax - over a blog posting she wrote in November last year. The woman was an ACC claimant for treatment for depression following sexual abuse.
In a statement this afternoon, Dr Jansen said although he continued to regard her blog post as defamatory, he had instructed his lawyers to withdraw the legal action.
"While I continue to regard the statements made on her blog as defamatory, and would obviously prefer that she withdrew them and apologised, as a clinician I appreciate that her recovery must take precedence at this time."
Dr Jansen said he had not and could not have known she was an ACC claimant at the time, because the blog post was written under a pseudonym.
In a follow up blog post about the legal action, Jax had also questioned whether Dr Jansen had accessed her private file to obtain her address. Dr Jansen said yesterday ACC had investigated that allegation at his request and concluded he had never accessed any personal information it held about the woman.
Labour MP Carmel Sepuloni had raised Dr Jansen's legal action in Parliament.
Copyright 2011 APN Holdings NZ Ltd

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10723869

3 comments:

  1. Well OBVIOUSLY he IS accessing information about me from ACC even though he is suing as a private person - otherwise, why did ACC tell him about the report into whether or not he accessed my personal files and no one else?

    It begs the question... how does someone find a claimant only through a blog name AND without accessing ACC info?

    In addition, since my "recovery is to take precedence" over any sanctimonious legal action, how is it that I STILL HAVE HEARD NOTHING from ACC?

    Or God forbid, is this more evidence of sheer "incompetence"?

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  2. Stop trying to make out ya never knew she was a Sensitive Claimant Peter. Like that would of made a difference if it was even the truth. As other doctors that answer to you and do contract work for ACC have threatened legal action for defamation against claimants? Wasn't it you who advised them to do just that??

    Of course you knew! Not like you got her name from ANYWHERE else. Yes, rememeber you wrote her name on the papers you served her. FFS what a dropkick!!

    Plus the fact ACC have released information about this case and their investigation into it to you and not Jax again proves you are accessing information for your legal case. A PRIVATE suit!! What the hell is with ACC? Shame on ACC!!! SHAME!!!!

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  3. STATEMENT BY DR PETER JANSEN

    ACC has informed me that the investigation I requested has concluded that I never accessed any personal information held by the Corporation regarding “k1w1jax”.

    As k1w1jax was a pseudonym, I did not and could not know that she was an ACC claimant for a mental injury at the time she was making defamatory comments about me on her blog.

    Now that the allegation of improper use of ACC information has been shown to be wrong, I have instructed my lawyer to withdraw the legal action against her.

    While I continue to regard the statements made on her blog as defamatory, and would obviously prefer that she withdrew them and apologised, as a clinician I appreciate that her recovery must take precedence at this time.

    ENDS

    There will be no interviews.

    ReplyDelete