Coronial case files are kept for all ‘unnatural’ deaths reported to a coroner in Australia. An increasing number of family members’ request to access information contained in the Coronial case file pertaining to the death of their relative. In some Australian states, social workers attached to the coroner’s office or forensic medicine have, over time, developed support to family members who are approved by a coroner to access reports and, in some circumstances, scene photographs and video footage. However, how families experience an unnatural death of a relative or friend and navigate systems and services related to this death, remains poorly understood. This research provides an opportunity to advance understandings of family experiences of accessing Coronial case files, including various documents, photographs, or other images or footage.
The research takes a qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews with bereaved family members. In undertaking this research, we aim to better understand issues of process navigation, and the potentialities for forms of resolution, and (relational and death-specific) contexts within which viewing available documents might be beneficial. In doing so, we contribute to scholarship on the lived experience of bereavement, to so improve support via a lessening of the socio-cultural and bureaucratic opacity that prevails in circumstances of sudden death.
