A Step into the Unknown

Tomorrow I am attending a Coroner’s Court; this is a first and hopefully a last for me. Coroner’s Courts are entrenched into the English legal structure. They are in place so that there can be an independent inquiry into sudden or unexplained deaths. I suspect that the majority of activity is run of the mill and that the courts rarely make headlines. It would appear that they only do so when it is some tragedy of national importance such as the Hillsborough Disaster. In such case they can take evidence and make recommendations.

I imagine that it will be very low key; my guidance for this is that I have never seen one dramatized on TV, unlike courts that feature on every other TV programme. I hope that I am going to come away with a sense of dignified justice being effective in a very English understated way. My fear is that it will be a piece of meaningless process put together by a group of jobs worths.

I will be interested to see admittedly from this one experience whether the court does play a useful role in explaining the circumstances of a death, and whether if there was something suspicious or more likely process failings that could have made a death less likely these are exposed and remedial action taken.

I think that I am not in a position of wanting to blame somebody or find out who the guilty party is; rather I would like to see the proceedings contributing to a better future.

In a future blog I will report on my impressions of the day, this may be delayed because it is taking place in Hastings, which is a three hundred mile drive from here. Marion is picking me up on her way back from her parents. That brings me to the other great challenge for tomorrow, as Marion has been away I have to make sure that the house is absolutely spotless and that everything is in the right place. All will be revealed late tomorrow evening. Again I will report back in the next blog.