Funeral home abuse not only takes place in Florida but also in other countries. In Canada a funeral director delivered to a grieving daughter remains other than those that were supposed to be those of her mother. Instead, the grieving daughter, Ellen Johnson, received someone else’s remains and has no idea what happened to her mother’s body after she died. The funeral director was charged with 34 counts of fraud and 2 counts of negligence with respect to the proper care of human remains and indignities to human remains. According to news sources, the funeral director’s lawyer indicated that he will plead guilty to 38 charges.
As a Florida funeral home abuse lawyer I understand that a funeral home owes its clients the highest duty of care when it comes time to prepare a deceased loved one for burial or cremation. Unfortunately, as the above story indicates, funeral home abuse includes cases involving improper cremation methods and mixing identification of cremated remains. In some cases, funeral homes have even lost the body of loved ones, and commonly misrepresent the services of the cemetery or cremation facility. We believe that funeral home exploitation is one of the most extreme and abhorrent violations of trust that exists between the family of the deceased and the funeral home staff and such abuse and exploitation affects innocent families at their worst moments. In a tightening economy, reports have indicated a rise in the following unscrupulous acts by funeral, cemetery and cremation providers: wrong bodies being cremated, bodies not being stored correctly, bodies not being correctly buried or not buried at all, improper embalming, multiple bodies placed in one coffin, body parts removed and sold and grave sites vandalized and covered with waste.
If you or a family member have been the victim of Florida cemetery negligence, Florida funeral home abuse or a Florida cremation mistake or anywhere else in the United States please contact The Law Offices of Henry E. Gare at (888)-360-4529
Posted on: Thursday, September 24th, 2009