head injury

[TicklishAquaShark]

When I was little, I on two separate occasions, sustained head injuries that knocked me out, resulted in bleeding and landed me in hospital . Little bits of information such as learning that my mother had 3 children removed from her care previously and then changed her legal name and moved (although I have no information about why - how can I find out?) as well as memories from childhood where my mother would threaten to bang my brother and I's heads together, as well as other aggressive behaviours when she was mentally unstable have led me to believe that it was her who harmed me. I remember being afraid of her, she was aggressive. When I recalled it when I was older, my mother told me that they were accidents. It hasn't yet been proven that it was her, I am trying to gather information to help my case. I can't ask her for anything, because she threatens to kill herself because it's too much and she doesn't want to remember or tell me. I subsequently got diagnosed with autism, and suffer with executive functioning and issues with my communication and memory which greatly effects my life. My biological dad shows signs of autism which might complicate this.
I want to know what my next steps should be; should I be submitting SAR requests, do I have the right to know what her previous identity was, who my siblings are and why they were removed? I potentially want to take legal action for personal injury (or something like that) but not sure where to start/if I should reach out to a solicitor

Legal action against whom? You may find any childhood medical records have been destroyed. Birth certificates etc are a matter of public record

Legal action for personal injury, as in you want to seek compensation?
Brain injuries have not been found to cause autism.
I think you’d be unlikely to get any payout and, if SS/police didn’t feel the need to pursue charges against your mother when you were hospitalised as a child, sadly I can’t imagine they would be able to find much evidence now to be able to do so.
Have you been able to access counselling to help deal with what was, undoubtedly, an awful childhood?
I hope you find peace op, but I fear trying to find the answers you seek may cause you more heartache

The phrase ‘if you don’t pack it in I’m going to bang your heads together’ is one that has frequently been used by parents when siblings are fighting, arguing or being generally pains in the neck. It doesn’t mean they literally did it.

It sounds like you had a very traumatised childhood OP.
There's pretty much zero change of a PI claim being made here. You would need to get information which simply won't be available now and also in the UK these kinds of claims don't pay the big bucks you see in TV. And unless you can demonstrate someone was negligent in a work capacity, not sure who you'd be suing here. If you mean your mum then she presumably doesn't have the means to pay.
If you're saying social services should have taken you away from mum, you'd need to have some very concrete evidence to show that they could reasonably have foreseen this risk and then that this injury actually caused specific damage.
This will likely tear you in shreds trying to pull a case together. Maybe go and see a lawyer and see what they say but the best thing will be going to get the appropriate therapy to help you process this difficult childhood

I am riddled with disabling mental health issues which has been my focus and priority for the past few years and will continue to be for a long time. I doubt I have the head space to go through any evidence I can collect. I definitely don't have the energy for a legal case right now, but I am wary that records are destroyed after a certain time frame although I'm not sure what that time frame is, a google tells me that they are destroyed at 25? I am under that age.
I have been thinking about this because my mother wants to build a relationship with me, she has been denying things that I remember happening and I want to see evidence on paper and draw my own conclusions. It also might tell me if someone was somehow responsible for what I went through or should have acted to prevent harm - and whoever that is it's them that I would try to peruse a case against.
I know about the phrase 'bang your heads together', but I have memories of her following through with it. My grandparents told me they witnessed my mothers aggression themselves when I was a baby. she was on medication. They tried to report her to the police, showing my bruises and marks, but she turned it around on my dad claiming domestic abuse and left. Unfortunately, he had also been abusing me by taking me to see his friends who were taking drugs and had their children removed themselves so he lost his parental rights.
I prefer to have some idea what I am going to do about things that are bothering me in order to mentally file it away, but maybe I shouldnt be dealing with this right now. I want to know what I went through, but no one else seems to. And right now, there's no evidence.

I am not an expert but could you make GDPR requests and gain copies of your records from say school/local hospital/GP/Social Services etc and then one you obtain them advise them that you are considering a claim (although I fear it could be statue barred) and ask them to retain the records. No idea if this will be helpful or not

You can request your own medical and social care records, but if they reference anyone else (your mother or siblings that will be redacted as you only have a right to see your own records.
im sorry you had such a difficult childhood.

Someone like a specialist lawyer can make a dsar with your permission to get any records which may be available. However you do need someone with stamina and some relevant knowledge to filter them and support you as it may prove upsetting or disappointing . If you do receive any medical records be aware there is usually a lot of detail which will be irrelevant to your query and full of jargon/abbreviations. They may also be redacted so you may not be able to identify those involved . Agree with pp that getting help to process and come to terms with your unhappy childhood is a better route for now.

Generally speaking you have three years from the incident (or the date that you were made aware that the incident had caused you an injury) to bring a personal injury claim.

In cases of historic abuse, this barring period can sometimes be extended/ignored. However, you would need compelling evidence, which based on your post you don't have.

You don't remember the incidents. The only other person involved says they were accidents. It's unlikely (but not impossible) that multiple incidents of this nature would have gone uninvestigated by SS in the last 25 years if the medical professionals who treated you suspected something untoward.

Civil cases have a lower burden of proof than criminal trials, but that doesn't mean that they are any easier on either side. They're stressful, time consuming and expensive. Can you afford litigation? Are you in the right frame of mind to dedicate years to this? Are you prepared for the impact it will have on your wider family?

Is your mother even fit to stand trial? Does she have assets worth suing for? Is 'winning', or punishing her, worth it? If you get the answer you're looking for, will that help you move on? What if it goes the other way?

It sounds like you've been through a lot. Perhaps you've been through enough.

Saying you'd bang siblings heads together was a common saying, never an actual thing.