Caught between family and morals

[Samarie123]

Hi everyone. This is my first post.

I want some advice on a coroner report which my husbands family are trying to keep secret from the deceased persons long time partner and mother of his 4 kids.
The report shows negligence from NHS and it’s going to court.
Now husbands family want to keep the inquest private ( not sure if they can) and any compensation they want to keep for themselves. Now I think this is so wrong when the deceased has 4 kids (husbands brother)
I want to tell her but don’t want to go against hubs family. But I also can’t sleep well at night knowing that his kids would miss out on anything owed to them.

Theres bad blood in family. But I feel I should tell her.

Presume they not married ? Did he make a will ?

No he didn’t. He died unexpectedly young

No not married

The report and proceedings are public.

Tell her and do it anonymously if you want to keep out of it.

If your in laws are going to sue the NHS for compensation this isn't going to happen overnight. Don't panic You don't have to do anything straight away. You have time to work out what to do for the best.

If there's going to be an inquest they can't keep it private. As far as I can tell an inquest is public, like a court case. The dead man's partner needs to know about it.

If he died as a result of negligence only people who will be disadvantaged by the death can sue for compensation. His DP and particularly the DC are probably the only people who would have grounds to make such a claim.

For example if one of my adult DC died as a result of negligence I wouldn't be able to sue anyone because I'm not dependent on my DC in any way. So your BIL's parents won't be able to sue unless he was supporting for them.

IANAL, though. No doubt someone more expert will be along soon.

Thanks for replies

Very helpful

That sounds pretty disgusting behaviour. No wonder you can't sleep.

My brother died in similar circs and I could not have imagined using the lack of legal status his partner had against her and their child.

You could write to the coroner perhaps or ring their office, and tell them directly that the partner is a person of interest and needs to be told about the inquest.

An nhs claim takes about 2 years minimum so no rush there.

Thanks again. I phoned her last night and told her everything I know. She was so grateful as it gave her a little bit of peace.
Also she doesn’t have his name on all 4 kids birth certificates, so now I wonder where this would leave her.
She found our her was having an affair after he died and now says she has no intentions of adding him to their birth certificates.
I told her it may be in her and their best interests to do it.
Tricky situation.