Presumed Dead Law
The Justice Committee of the House of Commons is calling for a new ‘presumed dead’ law. There is an article here on the BBC.
This law could go further in that we also need an Interim Death Certificate, for where someone has died, but the cause of death needs to be determined by a formal inquest.
The mother of a friend of mine died a few years ago and until the full Death Certificate, it created a lot of heartache, grief and administrative pain. Especially, as his father had delegated everything financial to his mother. He couldn’t even find out how much was in the bank account and what standing orders were set up. But an Interim Death Certificate would have remedied that situation, although perhaps to avoid fraud, it would not have the full rights of a full Death Certificate.
I heard from my legal friends at the time, that this is quite a common situation and so today I wrote to the Justice Committee. I just found the page for the Committee on the web. There is an e-mail address there. So if you have a matter for a House of Commons Committee, it is very easy to contact them.
The Anonymous Widower 
They do now offer an death certificate in certain cases, but of course if one was offers when someone just disappeared, there could be problems. The man whose remains were found last week under the motorway flyover a couple of miles from where I live could have just disappeared, but still alive.
Comment by Liz P | February 22, 2012 |