Tampa Funeral Home Negligence

Tampa – St. Petersburg Funeral Home Negligence Attorneys

When someone you love passes away, you are left to deal with an enormous loss. Before you can focus on the grieving process, most families usually make arrangements for their loved one’s remains. Depending on the preferences of the deceased, you may have a wake, visitation, funeral, memorial service, cremation or burial.

Whatever families decide, they first must choose a funeral home that they trust to carry out whatever services are needed. Funeral homes should be there to help families plan these services, leaving children, parents, spouses and other family to notify friends and extended family, settle any outstanding financial matters, and sort through personal belongings.

You trust that a funeral home will plan and prepare the necessary services while maintain a high level of respect. Sadly, this is not always the case and some funeral home employees may try and take advantage of a grieving family. When these employees or facilities fail to provide proper handling and care with the remains of a deceased person, then as a family member, you may be able to recover financial compensation. Florida law allows for families to seek compensation for all acts of funeral home negligence.

Contact our Tampa and St. Petersburg Funeral Home Negligence Lawyers at Whittel & Melton today to speak with our compassionate and qualified personal injury attorneys. We can meet with you for free and discuss the details of your potential funeral home negligence or abuse claim. Call us 24/7 at 813-221-3200 or 727-823-0000.

What Acts Constitute Nursing Home Negligence?

Funeral home negligence places additional stress on already grieving family members. Funeral home negligence can take on various different forms, but usually involve intentional harm, negligent mistakes, or an outright failure to provide proper care and services.

Below you will find specific negligent acts that are examples of funeral home abuse and neglect:

Losing the remains of a loved one. The funeral home is charged with the task of preparing the body for display during visitation and/or cremating or burying the remains. Whether families are burying their loved one or keeping the ashes of their loved one, they have the right to expect that the funeral home has not lost or mixed up the remains with another decedent. Burying a loved one or cremating them often provides families with a closure that is vital when it comes to the grieving process, but when a funeral home commits negligent acts related to losing a body, they deny families with the opportunity to say goodbye to their loved one.

Theft/Robbery. Sometimes funeral homes and/or their employees can be downright shameless and steal valuable property from the bodies that they are tasked with preserving. Artificial limbs, gold teeth, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings, and other jewelry may be found missing. In some extreme cases, funeral homes have been found to go as far as to steal organs or body parts from the deceased to sell for research.

Failing to care properly for the remains. This can be intentional or just neglectful. If a funeral home fails to store bodies properly, drop bodies during transport, place multiple bodies in one casket, mutilate or disfigure bodies, or even go as far as to sexually abuse or maim a corpse, then these are all acts of funeral home abuse and negligence.

Embalming errors. Preparing a postmortem body for visitations, wakes and funerals requires proper embalming and storing. When not done properly, due to inexperienced, unlicensed, or even just a negligent oversight, disfigurement or extensive decomposition can be the result. If the error is severe enough, then a family may no longer be able to view their loved one’s body and resort to cremation. Embalming errors can wrongfully deny family of an opportunity to carry out a specific service that their deceased loved one would have wanted. Something important to note: Funeral homes that attempt to hide any errors made to a body by cremating without a family’s permission, commit gross negligence – an extreme degree of negligence.

Cemetery oversights. Funeral homes are usually involved in the burial process, and mistakes and acts of negligence can certainly happen during this process. Employees may place the wrong body in the wrong plot, bury multiple bodies in one grave, neglect gravesites making them targets for acts of vandalism, or even move a body after it has been buried.

Contact Our Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg Funeral Home Abuse and Negligence Lawyers Now

You have lost a loved one and are going through a highly emotional and difficult time. A negligent funeral home that mishandled your loved one’s remains only makes your situation worse. Our Tampa and St. Petersburg Funeral Home Negligence Lawyers at Whittel & Melton can advocate for your family and seek justice from the funeral home that failed to properly preserve the memory of your loved one. Your family should never have had to endure such circumstances, and we can handle the legal aspects of your claim so that you can focus on dealing with your loss.

Call us now at 813-221-3200 or 727-823-0000 or contact us online to schedule a completely free and confidential consultation. We will never charge any fees to meet with us and we only get paid if we are able to get you a financial reward for your suffering.