Andrea Dunlop

And judges are also human beings and judges are not necessarily medically knowledgeable.

It's not their field of study.

So if you are in a situation, particularly if you have parents with resources who can go into court and say, this happened in my case, this happened in many other cases.

This happened in the Kowalski case.

Right.

They had these other experts testifying about CRPS.

A judge is not necessarily going to know sitting on the bench who is credible and who isn't.

Right.

These doctors are saying one thing and now these other doctors are saying other things.

So I don't know who am I to be the tiebreaker.

And so, unfortunately, that means that prosecutors who prosecute child abuse cases really need to be knowledgeable about this cadre of experts.

That's part of the solution.

The solution is obviously complex.

Part of it is just that confusion about this abuse.

If you don't even understand what Munchausen by proxy abuse is and you're sitting on the bench, which is unfortunately really common, you're looking at someone who appears like a sympathetic mother.

And they get up there and they tell you a sob story and they cry in court and they say, these horrible doctors have accused me of abuse and I just have this sick child and look at everything I've done for my child.

I quit my job to take care of my child.

And they're looking at something like often is not where the child does have a diagnosis.

Now, that diagnosis was achieved by fraudulent means.

If you don't understand what this abuse is, you're going to be like, but this child was diagnosed with this condition.