Can someone talk to me about inquests?

[LivinLaVidaLoki]

My brother died earlier this year. He died quite suddenly in hospital. The main cause of death is established but there are queries about the secondary cause.
We were advised that it had been referred to the coroner and then they subsequently advised there would be an inquest with a jury.
The coroners clerk has been so helpful updating us and we now know the coroner has all the information in to consider and will be setting a date when this is done. Not sure how long that will take, but it's got me thinking about the actual inquest.
We have been advised that we can ask questions at the inquest. As a family we have many questions. Are we better asking them ourselves or having a legal representative, such as a solicitor to do this for us?
I'm just nervous that the emotional charge of this will mean that we forget to ask things or get confused or something.
Its just been so hard since he's been gone and I feel like I can't even begin to grieve until I have at least tried to get answers to some of the questions we have.

As someone who has been in coroners court as a healthcare professional....

I would highly recommend getting legal support. They can ask all your questions and may think of other that you won't contemplate.

The family of the deceased at the case I was involved in struggled to take in information and kept repeating questions. This is obviously understandable due to it being a traumatic experience for them. But I do remember thinking they would have been better with legal support, as they often didn't understand a lot of what was being said (medical jargon).

I am sorry for the loss of your brother. I attended the inquest of my daughter’s death. I didn’t ask any questions, probably because I was numb. It is really good you are thinking about the best way to do this. I didn’t. I just turned up as I didn’t have a clue what to expect. I do regret this as I have unanswered questions. I suggest you write down all your questions and have a third party with you who can ask on your behalf.

It's unusual to have a coroner's inquest with jury. This is generally reserved for cases where there has been a death in custody (and rare even then) or where the death has resulted from negligent health and safety in the workplace. Ive attended inquests in the course of my work and also had a parents death referred to the coroner as no obvious cause of death.

I agree with pp, that legal representation will be helpful for your family. Remember that the court's purpose is to establish the cause of death not to find any person (or institution) criminally guilty, although there is a possibility that Evidence brought to the inquest could lead to criminal or civil proceedings.

It is really emotionally gruelling for families, and court can go on for several days or may be completed in a day or two depending on the number of witnesses. There is no expectation for families to attend any or all of it. If you have a few family members who want to attend you may feel it helpful to take it in shifts and give yourself a break.

Thank you. I think legal support and advice is probably the way to go.
@Wazzzzzuuuuuuup that clarity around why a jury trial is required is very helpful.
One of the areas of confusion around the secondary cause of death is because he had suffered significant and life changing injuries in an accident at work a few years ago and it's looking at if one if the contributing factors could be related to this.

I won’t go into too many details but I went to an inquest of a very close relative who was below the age of 3. They died 12 hours after a routine vaccine. Medical experts were there but I wish we had legal representation, at the time we just wanted to get it over with. A few questions were asked but honestly not enough.

definitely get legal representation as they will ask/think of all the questions you forget

I will only add that in my experience of inquests I have attended they have always been very compassionate towards family. Everything was explained and the coroner was very helpful.
There wasn't a jury in either case (that I recall- I think more than the one coroner deliberated on cause though, sorry my memory is sketchy as obviously stressful ) although police/medical staff were called upon to give statements.
They did go through the post-mortem and that was very hard to listen to so you might want to be aware of that/ask if you can leave temporarily

I've attended 2: one for my granddad who died from mesothelioma, and one for my uncle where cause of death was disputed.

They are tough, I won't lie. We didn't have legal representation, and both times we were treated with such compassion (the 2nd was over Teams due to the pandemic). The second had to be adjourned after we were all in the Teams hearing and the coroner was so kind and apologetic to us, as I'd had to take time off work (not so kind to the doctor who had failed to attend the hearing and was a key witness).

I'd say write down all your questions, if during the hearing they get answered, tick them off, and then you can ask any remaining questions when given the opportunity.

Agree that if there was a post-mortem and they go through that, it's pretty brutal - I didn't know they'd do that at my granddad's and it broke me. My uncle didn't have one so it obviously didn't happen that time.

At my granddad's in person inquest we had a lovely lady with us before and after who we could talk to/ask questions/cry on (in my case!) so if it's in person and any support is offered, do take them up on it. I'm not sure who provides that though.

I'm sorry for your loss

Have you looked at the Inquest Charity for info too? https://www.inquest.org.uk/

If you can afford it definitely get legal advice. If you can't afford it, or you can't get representation in time, then make an application to Advocate for Pro bono support: https://weareadvocate.org.uk/

If there is potential medical negligence with us also AvMa https://www.avma.org.uk/

*Then also, not 'with us'

I have been to an inquest as the mother of the deceased. Sadly, my husband, father to the deceased, had also died after the first death. He should have been a primary witness as he had been there but all that could be done was to read out his statement.

The court staff and the coroner herself were magnificently kind and supportive. Possibly more than they would have been normally due to my personal circumstances. Surviving sibling felt less positive as their baby was not allowed in court. We were offered the choice of being in a less formal room or the formal court set up. We went for less formal and felt it was the right decision. It was a large room in the council building with a table at the top for the coroner and some other officials - my memory is a bit blank. Witnesses were called. They sat amongst the rest of us family and friends before going up to speak.

We were given opportunities to question every witness and the coroner would repeatedly ask if we had anything else to ask. Only family could ask questions but I could take notes from others to ask.

There were two serious incident reports made from two NHS Trusts and maybe if we'd pushed for legal representation then something could have been made of malpractice or an incompetent release procedure. At the time I just wanted to make sure that nothing like this happened after anyone else's release from being an involuntary patient for mental health reasons - being released from one trust into an area not covered by that trust.

Something helpful was that friends of my child had questions for the first trust - a lot. Their representative stayed behind to talk to us and they felt heard and understood more about what had happened.

We were offered a CD of the two days proceedings at the start. I have never listened to it. We could pay there and then for extra copies.

When it was over we went downstairs and got a proper death certificate from the Registry Office that was in the same building.

Timing - it took some months to set up from the original death then that hearing had to be postponed as my husband was in hospital. The hearing was eventually held over a year after the death.

OP, I'm sorry you have to go through this, and sorry for your loss. The only advice I can think of is to take notes to jot down questions that may arise from evidence given. Write down questions you have already. Make sure you have support from family and friends. If the court is in another area plan in advance about travelling and where you will stay.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply.
It does seem a lot less daunting now and to anyone who's had to go through this too.

It's a horrible thing to have to go through OP. It takes time to accept that it's happening at all, at least it did for me. Once we'd got support though, it felt a lot less intense.