The Grieving Family Who Say the Coroner's Courts Aren't Working
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The Grieving Family Who Say the Coroner's Courts Aren't Working
Published 6 hours ago
Image source: Daniel Lindsay by Michael Buchanan, Social affairs correspondent
Sarah thought she knew what to expect when attending a coroner's court in May 2024 to discuss the death of her second cousin. Her experience as a murder detective prepared her for courts, judges, and legal argument. Yet, she wasn't ready for the hostile atmosphere she encountered. "I felt like I was on trial," she recalls of her first hearing in Woking, Surrey.
Her cousin, Daniel Lindsay, died unexpectedly in 2023 at age 41. Living in a specialized care home for people with learning disabilities and Down Syndrome, Daniel also had type 1 diabetes. As his death was unexpected, the case was referred to the coroner for an inquest.
What followed was one of Sarah's most stressful life experiences. She learned new details about her cousin's life and cause of death, which contrasted with the family's initial assumption of a heart attack. The process was emotionally taxing and surprisingly complex and frustrating, leaving her tearful and furious at times.
Coroners' courts investigate deaths that are not straightforward, like unexpected or violent deaths, or those occurring in state custody. Thousands of British families rely on these courts annually for answers. However, many observers, from MPs to legal experts, argue the entire system is breaking down due to:
- Backlogs in cases
- Challenges with post-mortems
- Increasingly complex caseloads as people live longer, coupled with dwindling resources from all political parties.
"We're beyond crisis now," says Dr. Georgia Richards, an epidemiologist at King's College London who studies future death prevention. "The government doesn't seem to grasp the impact of the broken system."
Post-mortem delays have also become a significant issue. Sarah and her sister, Laura Lindsay, Daniel's next of kin, have navigated the coronial system since his death, describing it as another constant battle.
Coroners' courts aim to answer four main questions: who died, where, when, and cause of death. While the first three are usually quickly established, focusing on determining the cause of death consumes the coroner's attention most intensely. Last year, nearly 148,000 deaths were reported to coroners in England and Wales, almost a quarter of which resulted in inquests.