Currently I'm reading: Jenseits vom Tatort by Horst Brandt
Bloglovin
Page visits
Follow me on
Showing posts with label Coroner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coroner. Show all posts
16 August 2014
#8 Murder and/or Suspicious Deaths
In a murder and/or suspicious death, the Coroner's involvement is actually limited.
Any body (quite literally) is, by law, the 'property' of the Coroner. In England, the police will generally attend every sudden death as a matter of course. It is than the police who decide that the death is being suspicious - this is not a Coroner's decision. Often, it is quite obvious that the death is suspicious (shooting, knife wounds etc). Sometimes it is not so obvious. But - not for the Coroner to say - it will be the police who makes that decision to treat the death as suspicious or non-suspicous. The Coroner than only looks after the body for the police i.e. take it into the mortuary. But it will be up to the police to do all the investigations, forensics etc.
A special post mortem is carried out for suspicious deaths. While the Coroner has to give his/her permission for the special post mortem, it would be a very unwise Coroner who would not allow the police access to the body. In fact, I have never heard that happening, and quite frankly, there is no reason to. Those special post mortems are more in-depths than a 'normal' post mortem. For example, every inch of the body will be looked at (skin), swaps are taken, often fingernail clippings, hair roots. The police will have special forensic guys there for this, also photographs will be taken which may be needed for a future prosecution. So while the the purpose of a 'normal' post mortem is only to find the cause of death, for a special post mortem in addition to the cause of death the police will also look for evidence on the body which can assist them with a potential prosecution (or, indeed, to let someone of the hook, of course). All those investigations will be done by the police, not the Coroner.
And it is also the police who does the whole 'whodunnit' investigation - nothing to do with the Coroner.
There are , of course, cases where the police initially deems the death as non-suspicous and than, during a 'normal' Coroner's post mortem we do find something untoward. Rare, but it can happen. Than we report back to the police, and in most cases, the police than order a special post mortem. An example of this might be that a person gets found deceased in his house. No outward sign of violence, maybe he was even known to be ill. But than during a normal post mortem, the pathologist finds a torn liver and blood in the abdomen, indicating that he may have been hit in the stomach. Than we usually stop the normal post mortem straight away and inform the police. They will than take it from there usually.
A potential suspect who has been charged with the death is, by law, entitled to a second post mortem on the body. This than gets arranged by the defence solicitor. As Coroner's Officers, we just have to make sure that we don't release the body for funeral arrangements for the family of the deceased before this has taken place. A very unpleasant job and not easy to explain to bereaved families that the person who is potentially responsible for their loved ones death is now entitled (via their solicitor of course) to have access to the body. But I always try to tell them that the law is as such, and they surely don't want to compromise a future trial etc. We will try, of course, that this process is going to be as quick as possible. But it does usually take about 4 weeks.
If a person gets charged with the death and send to court, the Coroner will adjourn the Coroner's investigation, and there is not going to be a Coroner's inquest. This is because the circumstances of the death will now be heard at a different court (=the criminal court rather than the Coroner's court). It does not make a difference whether the person gets found guilty or not guilty, only that the circumstances of the death were heard at court. Remember - the Coroner's court is not about blame, guilt or not guilt. It is quite simply to state the circumstances of a death.
If after several years no person is charged with the death and it clearly is a suspicious death, than the Coroner will hold a very brief hearing (maybe only 10 minutes) where the police outline the circumstances of the death. It has little bearing on a future prosecution and is less or more 'just' a formality to close the case with the Coroner. Also, for the bereaved family of course, to hear some circumstances of the death, but usually, the little the Coroner can say is what they would know from the police anyway (i.e. on 05 July 2012 Mr Bloogs was shot death outside 204 Main Street by person unknown.)
As always,
Stay Safe!
Peggy x
20 July 2014
Please also read my disclaimer
7. The Coroner's verdict
In Post #6 I have already talked about a bit about a Coroner's inquest - when it is necessary. I think it is a good idea to look at Coroner's verdicts a bit more in detail.
Firstly, a Coroner's inquest is, of course, very different from a criminal trial. There is no prosecution and no defence, and with the verdict, no one is going to be found 'guilty' or 'not guilty'. The verdict should contain exactly the answers to the 4 questions the Coroner has to establish: Who died, When did they die, Where did they die, How did they die. And also the 'short term' verdict - and this is what people commonly know and refer to as 'the verdict'.
Some common short-term verdicts:
- Natural Causes
If a naturally occurring disease is responsible for the death rather than any outside influences.
example 1: if someone died during an operation, but the evidence shows that the natural disease (i.e. heart disease) was so severe that the person died from this rather than anything which went 'wrong' during the operation.
example 2: a body is found decomposed and the pathologist could not establish a cause of death, but records from doctors show that the person had a very serious disease and was likely going to die and there is nothing to show that anything else (accident, suicide) happened.
- Drug and/or alcohol related
These are usually what is commonly thought of as overdoses or if a person has a very high alcohol level in him/her and there are no other reasons why the person could have died. Usually, these kind of verdicts are based on toxicology testing
- Accident
This covers all kind of different accidents such as road traffic accident, accidents in the house, falls down stairs, falls in the road, auto-erotic, on the railway, accidents at work.
- Suicide / Took his/her own life / Killed him/herself whilst the balance of his/her mind was disturbed
This death could have been by different means such as hanging, overdoses, shooting oneself, on the railway.
This verdict has a very strong legal requirement of proof - beyond reasonable doubt. So, if the Coroner even has the slightest doubt that the person intended to take their own life, they should not record a verdict of suicide. Usually, the 'proof' the Coroner is looking for is a recent 'suicide note' where the person states that they intend to take their own life. The reasons for this don't matter too much to the Coroner (though they obviously matter a lot to the one's left behind!).
Killed him/herself whilst the balance of his/her ind was disturbed could mean that the person was know to have so kind of mental health issues already.
- Unlawfully killed
Those are the murder cases. I will talk in a separate post about murders. Briefly, if a person has been charged and brought before a court, usually there would not be a Coroner's hearing. A Coroner only hears a murder case if no-one has been brought before a criminal court.
- Lawfully killed
Quite a rare verdict. I can only think of one example I've ever heard of and that was of a person who was shot dead by police after he was threatening the public with a gun.
- Industrial Disease
The most common one of those is Asbestosis. It means that the person died as a result of a disease he/she contracted whilst being exposed to at work. It could also be, for example, if the wife of a person died who was washing his clothes which were covered in asbestos dust.
- Open verdict
This verdict is most often mis-understood. Open verdict does not mean that the case is going to continue. It is closed after the verdict 'open' has been delivered and not going to continue. Open verdict quite simply means that the Coroner has no evidence one way or another what has happened to the person.
Example 1: decomposed body, no evidence what could have happened (pathologist can't state the cause of death, no medical history or the medical history is not sufficient to convince the Coroner the person died from natural disease), no evidence of accident, no evidence of suicide.
Example 2: a person has taken on overdose of tablets, but the evidence is not enough to suggest whether the person wanted to take their own life or whether it was an accident.
This verdict is sometimes very difficult for families, as it does not really give them the closure they are so often looking for. But the Coroner can only go by the evidence available to him/her.
- Narrative verdict
If the Coroner feels that the verdict he/she wants to give does not fit any of the short term verdicts, he/she can quite simply record a text as the verdict. I've seen those verdicts quite often if the circumstances are too complicated for a simple verdict.
example:
Mrs Bloogs had severe heart disease. On 2 March 2014 she had a fall in the nursing home and was admitted to hospital with a fractured pelvis. Surgery was complicated and her mental state was as such that she did not easily accept medical treatment and refused medication.
= all this text above is the verdict.
There are a few more obscure ones which I haven't mentioned. Than there is the Neglect verdict which the Coroner can also add on to other verdicts.
One example would be:
Natural causes contributed to by neglect.
(a person who has terminal cancer but was not send for treatment for whatever reason).
----------
So, what does a Coroner's verdict mean? As I said before, this is not a prosecution, and a Coroner's verdict is quite simply to record the circumstances of a death. The Coroner cannot name an individual or a person as being responsible for the death.
The Coroner will not instigate negligence claims etc, that will be up to the family. But, of course, a Coroner's verdict may assist the family in a negligence claim.
---------
The Coroner can do what is called a 'Prevention of Future Deaths' letter after an inquest. Again, this is not to blame / shame an individual. It is done if, during the inquest, the Coroner uncovers maybe certain practices or issues which should be changed in order to prevent further deaths. The Coroner sends this of to the relevant organisations / companies, and a copy to the Ministry of Justice. The relevant organisations / companies have to respond within a certain time.
Here is two examples I can think of:
Example 1 is one of my previous cases:
An elderly lady died in a nursing home. She died from after a fall she had and broke her leg. She fell because she was using a walking aid frame (called a Zimmer frame), and the wheels had come loose and she collapsed with the frame. The inquest found that no-one seems to be responsible for the maintenance and repair of those walking aids. The nursing home where she lives said that the walking aids are property of the hospital who issued them and it is their property, they thought the hospital should maintain and repair them. The hospital who gave her the walking aid said they don't know where people go to live with their frames, so they thought it is the people themselves who look after them. The Coroner has written to both hospital and nursing home to say that a suitable arrangements needs to be found.
Example 2 is one which I read in the press:
I can't remember the exact circumstances, but a child had died whilst climbing on a walking frame in a playground. He had gotten tangled in the frame with laces which had been on the coat he was wearing. The Coroner wrote to the manufacturer and health and safety board to change the design of coats.
Peggy x
12 July 2014
Please also read my disclaimer
What is a Coroner's investigation and what is a Coroner's inquest?
Coroner's Investigation
If the cause cause of death is unclear and/or just requires a bit more looking into, the Coroner will open an investigation into the death. For example, a post mortem has been done, but the pathologist cannot determine a cause of death at this stage without doing further histological or toxicological examinations. Those examinations take some time (sometimes several months) and in order to enable the family to do all the arrangements (funeral etc) the Coroner will formally open an investigation. So the funeral can than go ahead as soon as the investigation has been opened, even though a cause of death has not been established, as we have everything we need from the physical body to establish the cause of death.
What does the Coroner's office do in an investigation?
Actually, not a lot. In the majority of cases, we quite simply wait for the pathologist to give us the final cause of death. Sometimes we request hospital records or similar if needed.
Once the result come back, and depending on the results, the Coroner will than either discontinue the investigation or the case will progress to inquest (an actual court hearing).
Examples of investigations
1. 25 year old man get found deceased at his home address Post mortem does not find an obvious cause of death. Even though the man was not a known drug taker, white powder is found on the table.
In this case, toxicology testing will be done.
If the tox comes back positive, the case will progress to inquest. If it is negative, the investigation will be discontinued.
2. An 85 year old man has died in hospital and the hospital has signed the death certificate as natural. The family than call the coroner and submit evidence which suggests the man was neglected in hospital and died possibly as the result of malnutrition.
In this case, if the body has already been cremated / buried, the Coroner will probably call for hospital records and obtain statements from the doctors and nurses who treated the man in hospital.
Coroner's inquest
An inquest is 'a step up' from an investigation. An inquest is a legal process, a court hearing to establish four facts: who died, when did they die, where did they die, how did they die. This is purely facts, no one gets found guilty or not guilty, there is no defendant and no prosecution.
An inquest will be heard when the death is unnatural or the cause of death is unknown, even after investigation.
Every inquest is heard in open court- this means that everyone can attend. Yes, even anyone walking past in the street right now can just pop in and sit in court. Cameras are not allowed in court. Not every inquest has 'life' witnesses, some may be 'all read' only - this depends on the complexity of the case and what the family etc feel about it.
At the end of an inquest, the Coroner will give his 'record of the inquest, and that verdict contains exactly the answer to those 4 questions I mentioned earlier. It will also contain a short form verdict - this is generally known as 'the verdict' i.e. accidental death.
Here is an example of a verdict (completely fictional)
1. Who died:
Mr Joe Bloggs, date of birth: 01.01.1950, born in London, single, by occupation a taxi driver, lived at an address in Elms Avenue, London E2
2. When died he die:
20 January 2014 at 2015 hrs
3. Where did he die:
his home address
4. How did he die:
On 20 January 2014 at his home address, Mr Bloggs fell down the stairs and sustained a severe head injury. Toxicology testing found that he was not intoxicated.
Accidental Death.
I will explain the different Coroner's verdicts in a different post.
6 July 2014
Please also read my disclaimer
Please note: This post contains information about a detailed internal examination which may upset some readers.
What is a post mortem examination and what happens at a post mortem?
(please also see below for different type of post mortems)
A post mortem examination, also called autopsy, is an internal examination of all the major organs. They are performed by specially trained medical professionals called pathologists. A big misconception is that the post mortem is performed by the Coroner. In fact, the Coroner is the legal person who sits in court and makes all the decisions. The Coroner asks a pathologist of his choice to perform a post mortem. We have certain approved pathologists which we use routinely. Some of them are independent, some of them are attached to hospitals. (of course, it may have been so in the past that the Coroner and the pathologist are one and the same person, and maybe there are still parts in the world where this is true? I don't know of any such arrangements anywhere in England though!)
Some pathologists may have their own little ways of working, but the majority of the post mortems I viewed were done as follows :
A 'Y' incision is done starting below the shoulders and going down all the way to the groin. The major internal organs are taken out. The head is cut open behind the ears (stretching from one ear to the other behind the head by the hairline) and the brain is removed. The pathologist than examines the internal organs outside the body. Afterwards, the internal organs are placed back in the body and the body is closed.
Sometimes it is necessary to take histology if a cause of death cannot be established by simply looking with the naked eye. This involves taking small tissue samples (almost like a biopsy) which will be preserved, pressed into slides and looked at under the microscope. Also, in some cases toxicology is done. This involves taken either blood, urine and/ or ocular fluid (the fluid around the eye) to see if alcohol and drugs (prescribed or illicit) are in the system. This is not done routinely, but only if the history of the case suggests that drugs and/or alcohol could have played a part in the death, if the cause of death otherwise cannot be established or if the Coroner requires it for an investigation (i.e. in a road traffic death to establish if the deceased person had consumed alcohol).
Please note that some of that work will be done by the APT (= Anatomical Pathology Technician). They are, in my opinion, the true heroes of the mortuary. They will also 'restore' the body after the post mortem: sew up, clean blood up, wash the hair).
In the Coroner's office, we do deal with 3 (only very slightly) different post mortem examinations:
1. Coroner's Post mortem
2. Forensic Post mortem
3. Hospital Post mortem
1. Coroner's Post Mortem
They majority of all the post mortems we do deal with. Ordered by the Coroner, their purpose is to establish the cause of death. The Coroner is not allowed to carry out further research on the body once a cause of death has been found. Histology and/or toxicology are not taken routinely.
2. Forensic Post Mortem
This is done in suspicious deaths and the Police will ask the Coroner to authorise a Forensic Post Mortem (and pay for it!). The main difference is that it is much more detailed than a Coroner's Post Mortem i.e. every inch of the skin will be looked at. Police Detectives and Forensic Photographers will be present to take evidence or a potential prosecution. Histology and toxicology are taken routinely. Those post mortems are performed by specially trained pathologists (forensic pathologist).
3. Hospital Post mortem
I mention this for completeness sake. The Coroner has nothing to do with a hospital post mortem, does not order hospital post mortems and we won't know the results if such examination has taken place. In cases of hospital deaths where there is no Coroner's post mortem required, the hospital doctors sometimes ask the family if they would agree to a hospital post mortem. This will need the permission from the family - unlike a Coroner's post mortem.
Can a family refuse a post mortem?
Yes and no. Sorry, it's not so straightforward..
The Coroner's Office has a duty to inform the family where and when a post mortem will take place and they are entitled to have a medical representative present should they wish to.
Legally speaking, if a family want to stop a Coroner's post mortem, they would need to go to the High Court to do this, and the High Court would need to be prepared to potentially issue a death certificate. Of course, this could be a lengthy legal procedure, and will delay matters for the family. The body will not be released until a cause of death has been established.
The Coroner does not need a family's permission to carry out a post mortem, but of course if a family have strong objections, we try to communicate with them to resolve issues. Quite often, refusal is on religious grounds. There is the possibility of a 'non-invasive' post mortem via CT scanning, but unfortunately, we cannot do this and family would have to arrange it themselves (quite often via a religious organisation). However, if the CT scan does not establish a cause of death, a post mortem would still need to go ahead. Again, potentially lengthy delays. Another possibility we offer is a restricted post mortem where the Coroner's pathologist does an internal examination as described above, but will stop when he has found a cause of death. For example, the heart gets examined and a degree of heart disease is found indicating a cause of death, than the head does not need to be opened to have the brain examined.
Post mortem report
The family and all other 'interested person's are entitled to have a copy of the post mortem report. We don't send them out to families routinely, as it is obviously not a very nice post to receive, but only when asked for them. They are usually not very easy to read and peppered with medical terminology. We advice families to see their general physician to have the terminology explained It is purely a report which outlines the pathologists examinations - how did the organs look like, any blocked arteries etc, toxicology if done, weight of the organs - and the medical cause of death. It will not contain details about the events surrounding the death or speculate on the circumstances of the death.
Peggy x
29 June 2014
Please also read my disclaimer
4. Time of Death
Legally, you are not dead until a person who is authorised to do so comes and pronounces life extinct. Usually, it will be a medical doctor who pronounces life extinct - this 'act' also determines the date and time of death.
In England and Wales, also certain specifically trained ambulance personnel and nurse practitioners can pronounce life extinct.
So, a body which gets found today 29th of June will have this date of death, even though the body could be very decomposed and has obviously died a long time ago. But as it is practically almost impossible to find out exactly when life ceases to exist, the Coroner works with the legal time of death.
It can sometimes be confusing when, for example, a family sits with their loved one in hospital who is about to die. The patient may 'slip away' on Saturday at around 11pm. But the doctor only comes in after midnight (maybe to give the family some time with their deceased loved one), and thus, the date of death will be the following day, Sunday.
The question I get asked most often in the Coroner's Office is: Can you please tell me when she/he has died? And I always have to disappoint them and point them to the legal time of death. No, we cannot tell when grandma died.
A post mortem cannot establish when the person died. Yes, there are certain signs on the body (stages of maggots etc), but a pathologist who is only there to establish the cause of death would usually not comment on it. This would be a different lego-medical field, and quite simply, for the Coroner, it does not make a great deal of difference when life ceased to exist (the actual time of death). It is very difficult to establish this. One would need to take the temperature of the body when found (deep anal thermometer) - the internal body temperature falls roughly 1 degree an hour. Further parameters need to be taken into consideration, such as temperature in the room, temperature outside, moisture, health condition of the body (did he/she had in infection - decomposes quicker), were the bowels full etc etc. The Coroner does not go into this, as, again, we do not require it, though we understand very often the families of the deceased are very anxious about that fact.
It is a different matter if the death is subject to a murder investigation. In that case, the police may need to establish the time of death more accurately - to rule out alibis etc. A lot of extensive forensic examinations are required, and than expert opions are sought, and it will be most likely that the police will get a likely time of death between… and …. rather than an exact time. It is also possible that the prosecution and the defendant have different experts on that matter who have different options on the time of death.
So, as you can see, it is indeed not straightforward and we as Coroner's Officers only work with the 'time life pronounced extinct by a person authorised to do so'.
Peggy x
21 June 2014
Please also read my disclaimer
3. Who can report a death to the Coroner?
Short answer - anyone! Yes, that's right, you don't have to be a professional to report a death to the Coroner. But let's look who most commonly reports:
1. Medical Professionals
Mostly it will be hospital doctors who are required to report certain deaths to the Coroner of patients who died in hospital; also GP's (General Practitioner's) when a patient died at home and the cannot issue a Medical Certificate of the cause of death
(see #2 - reasons why a death needs to be referred to the Coroner.)
2. Police
For any violent / accidental death, the police will be at the scene and will report the death to the Coroner. Also, the police will be called to any death not at hospital where there is no Doctor present who can state that this was an expected death. It will than be up to the Coroner and their appointed funeral director to move the body.
3. Funeral Directors
Funeral Directors will need to report a death to the Coroner if the plan to move a body out of England/Wales or if a body is coming into the country from abroad (to be buried/cremated in England/Wales).
4. The Registrar of Deaths, Births and Marriages
It does happen sometimes that a death is going to be registered and the Registrars are not content with the cause of death written on the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death and refer the death to the Coroner. This would only happen if it was not originally referred to the Coroner. One example of this is when a Doctor is not aware that he/she has to refer certain deaths to the Coroner i.e. death related to employment or deaths after an operation.
5. The family of a deceased person or indeed, anyone (does not need to be the family of the deceased person, could be a friend, carer etc)
It is rare but it does happen that there is no obvious reason why a death needs to be reported to the Coroner (ie. appears completely natural causes) but for some reason the family are unhappy and want the Coroner to investigate. We will ask the family to write in with their particular concerns and provide supporting evidence, and than the Coroner will assess whether it warrants a Coroner's investigation. Quite often, families are unaware what the Coroner actually does and what are our limitations - legal limitations. For example, the Coroner has nothing to do with the litigation process - that is legally very different. Often, families are unhappy about treatment in hospital etc, but again, this is not necessarily something the Coroner would investigate, and we would guide the family to the hospital complaints procedure (which we are not involved in at all). But if this 'complaint' could be linked to the cause of death, than the Coroner could investigate - which would usually mean a post mortem.
Ok, let me give you an example. Lets say the family state that the deceased person was not given enough food and drink in hospital. If the post mortem says that the person died from cancer, than the family would have to take their complaint about the treatment to the hospital. However, if the post mortem finds that malnutrition contributed to the death, than the Coroner would probably start an investigation - only to establish the circumstances of the death and not to 'sue' the hospital.
And, as always, there are many grey areas ….
Oh, and another thought : A death can only be reported to the Coroner if there is a dead body - so technically, once 'life has been pronounced extinct'. And legally, you are not dead until a person who is authorised to say so pronounces you dead. Causes some confusion sometimes! I will talk about this in next week's post.
Peggy x
14 June 2014
What kind of deaths do get reported to the Coroner in England/Wales?
Firstly, it's important to note that not every death gets reported to the Coroner. If someone dies from obvious natural causes and the treating doctor is in a position to issue the 'Medical Certificate of the Cause of Death', than the Coroner does not need to be involved.
Let's start with the obvious deaths which would need to get reported to the Coroner.
- Suspicious death
- shooting
- stabbing
- strangulation / smothering
- if the death occurred from injuries sustained in a fight
- if the death occurred after a any assault, i.e. robbery victim got pushed over, hits his head and now dies
- if police feel the circumstances are not clear i.e. someone gets found deceased in a property and the property was unlocked, items disturbed, lots of blood etc
- anything really which the police deem suspicious
Importantly, in the first instance, it is the police who decides that the death could be suspicious and not the Coroner. I always tell bereaved families 'if it was suspicious, than you would not talking to me now, but to a Detective.'
Of course, if the Coroner's Office finds anything untoward in the course of our investigation which initially was deemed as 'non-suspicious' we can than inform the police. But this is rare and mostly happens when subsequently new information comes to light.
2. It is believed that the cause of death would be clearly unnatural (= not naturally occurring disease)
- road traffic collision
- found in water (river / lake or bath water)
- electrocution
- suspension (hanging)
- drugs involved (either known drug user, or drugs / drug paraphernalia found nearby)
- possible medication overdose (either deliberate or accidental)
- auto-erotic
- trips / falls (down stairs etc)
This is not an exclusive list.
Please also note that the words 'accident' or 'suicide' are not causes of death, but a Coroner's verdict (I will write about Coroner's verdicts at a later stage on in this series). To illustrate - a hanging can be suicide or accidental.
3. The medical cause of death is unknown and/or the death was unexpected
This mostly is to do with the fact that in England and Wales, it is not sufficient to simply put 'natural causes' on the Medical Certificate of the Case of Death (MCCD -an MCCD allows you to register the death, obtain a death certificate and bury/cremate the body.) The Doctor who issues such certificate must be reasonably sure of the medical cause of death (to the best of his/her knowledge and belief). In order for a Doctor to issue a MCCD, they would need to fulfil certain conditions:
- they need to have seen the patient in his lifetime
- they need to have treated the patient in the last 14 days
- they need to know the medical cause of death to the best of their knowledge and belief
If the doctor does not meet those conditions, he/she needs to report the death to the Coroner. This doesn't always mean that a post mortem needs to be done. We can authorise the doctor to issue an MCCD if the Coroner is satisfied that no further investigation is needed. Examples of those are: the doctor has not seen the patient within 2 weeks, but the death was clearly expected and the cause of death known (i.e. cancer patient) or the doctor who usually sees the patient is on holiday, but his colleague confirms the death was expected and the cause of death is known.
- decomposed body (too decomposed to ascertain a medical cause of death)
4. The death is believed to be related to medical treatment
- death occurred during or shortly after an operation
- possible errors with medication
- death could be related to procedures or treatment i.e. radiotherapy
5. Work-related death
- if death occurred whilst being at work and is thought to be directly related to the work i.e. roofer falls from ladder
- industrial disease (asbestosis)
6. Death in Prison, Police Custody or whilst being detained in a Mental Health Unit
These will always need to be investigated, even if thought to be natural causes i.e. prisoner died from cancer.
The reason for this is that whilst detained, the deceased is not at liberty i.e. relies on other to a certain extent to get medical treatment, health conditions etc.
7. Others not covered by above
- neglect (either self-neglect or by others)
- if the death occurred in hospital less than 24 hrs of arriving
- body which will be taken out of England/Wales
- body which comes into the country
(not exclusive list, I may add to it as I come across others)
Which Coroner's jurisdiction (Coroner's area) will be dealing with a particular case?
The jurisdiction of which Coroner's district investigates is determined by 'where the body is currently lying' . In most cases, this will be the place of death i.e. a person's home address, the hospital, street location.
There are no shared databases, so my Coroner's Office would not know anything about a death which occurred in another area nor would we have access to any information.
Jurisdiction of a case can be transferred to another Coroner. This happens mostly when the body is lying in one jurisdiction, but the incident occurred in another. One example: a person is involved in a road traffic collision in Area 1, but gets flown to a Specialist Hospital in Area 2. The death would be reported to the Coroner in Area 2 but they may approach the Coroner for Area 1 to see if they take this case back. As you can imagine, some jurisdictions (areas) have big trauma hospitals and thus would pick up all the trauma deaths. Not only an issue of work distribution, but if the accident occurred in another area, we can assume that the investigation will take place in the different area and the family may live in that area. So it's also practicalities.
7 June 2014
I have been a Coroner's Officer now in London / England since 2006 and (most of the time) love my job. What I love about it is the variety - no day is the same, and that we are dealing with four areas, all of them very distinct.
- law
- medicine
- police / forensics
- bereavement care
There are downsides, of course. Ask my colleagues and they will all say: the enormous workload and staff shortages. It's a daily struggle between taking new death referrals (average about 4 a day per officer), answering the phone to general or specific queries from just about anyone, arranging post mortems, speaking to bereaved families, paperwork relating to death certification, correspondence from just about anyone from general queries over insurances over family tracing…., requesting evidence for court hearings, chasing evidence for court hearings, getting files ready for court, usher in court, explain court procedures to just about anyone who wants to known, manage the media, summons witnesses and juries, sending reports to bereaved families and other legally entitled ('interested') persons and the list goes one. But hey, I love it really I suppose. It just gets frustrating when someone tells you : I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO RING YOU FOR 1 HOUR NOW AND YOU DON'T ANWER YOUR PHONE. DO YOU EVER ANSWER YOUR PHONE? I'd love to say that I've been sitting in the lunch room knitting :)
The purpose of writing here on my book blog about my job as a Coroner's officer is mainly for writers of (crime) fiction. I get asked often about Coroner's procedural areas i.e. when does a death get referred to the Coroner, what exactly do we do under certain circumstances, how does a Coroner's Court differ from a criminal court, where/when/ how does a death get referred etc. Also, there a lot of mis-understanding about what Coroner's do and also important, what we can't do. And, of course, for everyone who is interested in the subject or just curious. So, I'm hoping to make this a regular feature to talk about my work and mainly procedural questions.
Very important disclaimer:
I can only tell you how the Coroner and Coroner's law in England/ UK work. Other countries may do things very differently.
Even within England, different Coroner's may have different procedure.
Of course, they will all have to keep to the same law, but may deal with matters slightly differently. For example, due to the workload, in my jurisdiction we never attend the scene of a death. In countryside locations, this may be different. In our busy Inner London jurisdiction, we do post mortems and run court every working day - again, countryside locations may do this only once a week or even once a fortnight.
Another important disclaimer I would like to add: I give general advice which is aimed at writers of fiction, or for anyone who might be interested in what the Coroner's Office does - I cannot give legal advice and what I say here on my blog is by no means legally binding - I'm not trained to give solid legal advice I'm afraid. While I'll try to speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, I may make mistakes.
In the following weeks,I hope to do this every every Saturday (or sometimes every other Saturday). In the following weeks I'm hoping to cover below list and anything else which takes my fancy:
- what deaths are referred to the Coroner
- what happens at a post mortem from the Coroner's point and when do we do it, rights of families
- further investigations / inquests
- specific deaths i.e. murder, road traffic collision, self harm, industrial disease, medical, drugs
- time of death (one of the questions I get asked most often!)
- toxicology
- transfer of jurisdiction
- what happens at a coroner's court hearing (who can speak, verdicts)
- juries
This is the court where I work
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)