The Grieving Family Who Says Coroner’s Courts Aren't Working
BBC Homepage
Skip to content Accessibility Help
Your account
Home
News
Sport
Earth
Reel
Worklife
Travel
Culture
Future
Music
TV
Weather
Sounds
More menu More menu
Search BBC
Home
News
...
The Grieving Family Who Says the Coroner's Courts Aren't Working
Published 3 minutes ago
Image source: Daniel Lindsay
By Michael Buchanan, Social Affairs Correspondent
Sarah, a murder detective, attended her first coroner’s court in May 2024 to discuss the death of her second cousin. She expected the process to be emotional but not as complex and frustrating as it turned out to be.
Her cousin, Daniel Lindsay, died unexpectedly in 2023 at the age of 41 while living in a care home for people with learning disabilities. His case was referred to the coroner for an inquest due to his unexpected death.
What followed were stressful revelations about Daniel’s life and cause of death, leaving Sarah tearful and furious. Coroners examine deaths that are not straightforward, ranging from unexpected or violent deaths to those in state custody. Thousands of British families rely on these courts each year for answers.
However, critics argue the entire system is breaking down due to backlogs, difficulties performing post-mortems, and insufficient government funding.
"We're beyond crisis now," says Dr Georgia Richards, an epidemiologist at King's College London. "The government really doesn't realise the impact of the broken system."
Inquests - which operate in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland - aim to answer four main questions: who died, where, when, and how. The focus quickly shifts to determining the cause of death, often a lengthy process.
Last year, almost 148,000 deaths were reported to coroners in England and Wales...