Warning. This is an information heavy post. Gotta be done as I’m telling this yarn over and over again. The world of inquests (heavily mugged from inquest.org.uk – a remarkable charity). Apologies if I’ve got anything wrong

As LB died suddenly, there will be an inquest. This is to establish ‘who’, ‘when’, ‘where’ and ‘how’.  Inquests are ‘fact finding missions’ rather than blame apportioning. There are two types of inquest; a ‘standard inquest’ (my interpretation) and an article 2 inquest. The coroner decides which type of inquest will be held. The a2 inquest is more in-depth and carries the power to be critical of the state. From the Inquest handbook;

In some circumstances article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, often referred to as the right to life, means that the state has a duty to carry out an effective investigation into a death. The inquest is normally the way which the state carries this out and inquests held in these circumstances are now referred to as article 2 inquests. They are required to be, in many ways, more thorough and far-reaching than inquests into deaths that do not engage this duty. 

Article 2 says that the state must not take someone’s life, except in very limited circumstances, and it imposes a duty on the state to protect life, so there must be a proper and thorough review of how someone died. Examples of article 2 inquests include where individuals died as a result of the use of lethal force by state agents (such as police officers) or while under the care or protection of the state (such as prisoners or other people known to authorities to be at real and immediate risk of harm).

The inquest is an open hearing and various witness will be called (or have statements read out). Sometimes there will be a jury. Families can choose to have legal representation or not. If the case is complicated, this is recommended. The inquest can take place months or sometimes years after the person has died, again depending on the complexity of the ‘case’.

Phew. There. The world of inquests in a few words. All new to us. Shocking that families have to wait so long for this process. Shocking that we have to pay for legal representation while the other interested parties can draw on their state funded legal teams. So hold on to your hats for some whacky ‘crowdsourcing’ fundraising gig. [Er, well, early days and all that, so don’t get too excited too soon].

For all the young dudes.