Miami Beach Funeral Home Negligence Lawyer
Miami Beach is a short drive from our Brickell office, and claims arising here are filed in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. We take these claims for families across Miami-Dade County: wrongful cremation, remains lost or released to the wrong people, failed embalming, burial in the wrong plot. We serve Miami Beach from our Miami office, and a suit like this is filed in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse. Call 954-522-5800 and speak to a lawyer about what happened.
Do not give a recorded statement to the funeral home or its insurer before you speak to a lawyer. If your loved one was shipped out of state, ask the receiving funeral home to document what it received and in what condition, in writing, straight away. That record is the one nobody can revise later.
Seasonal residents who die away from home
Below is what a Miami Beach funeral home claim involves: the failures this community’s funeral work actually produces, what Florida requires you to prove, how that gets proved, and what it is worth. The statutes sit on the statewide page. This is the local part.
Miami Beach funeral home claims are filed in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse. Much of the local funeral work is bound by observances requiring prompt burial and specific handling, so a delay that would be an inconvenience elsewhere is a serious harm here. Florida allows these claims with no physical injury.
What to do this week
None of this requires a lawyer and all of it is easier now than in six months. Where a case exists, these are also the steps that decide how strong it is.
- Write down the sequence while it is fresh. Who you spoke to and when, what you were told each time, what changed between one conversation and the next, and who else was in the room. The inconsistency between what a funeral home said on Tuesday and what it said on Friday is regularly the strongest evidence in these files, and it exists only if somebody wrote both down at the time.
- Ask for the remains to be left alone. Where anything can still be examined, say in writing that nothing further should be done: no further preparation, no cremation, no burial, no transfer, until it has been looked at. It is an uncomfortable thing to ask for and it is frequently the difference between proving a case and describing one. Say it to the funeral home and, where a regulator or a medical examiner is involved, say it to them as well.
- Tell the regulator, and keep the reference number. Florida licenses funeral establishments, cremation facilities and the people who work in them, and complaints are investigated. Making one does not replace a claim and it does not slow one down, and the investigation file that results is frequently the most useful document anybody produces. Keep whatever reference number you are given.
How these cases arise in Miami Beach
Miami Beach carries a dense population of older residents in condominium buildings, a large share of whom keep a permanent home somewhere else. When one of them dies here, the family is usually in another state and wants the body sent there.
Interstate transfer adds steps that a purely local funeral does not have: a Florida death certificate the receiving state will accept, a transit permit, an airline or a livery service, and a second funeral home at the other end. Families discover a problem only when the receiving funeral home opens the casket. By then the remains have been in three or four sets of hands and nobody will say which set is answerable.
A great deal of funeral work on Miami Beach runs to a fixed clock and to instructions that are not negotiable, and that is where these cases come from.
Observances with a timetable
Where a family requires burial within a set period, a delay is not an administrative issue.
- Written instructions about timing, given to the establishment and then not met
- A body held over a weekend or a holiday when it should not have been
- A viewing, a preparation or a transfer carried out contrary to instruction
- A cremation performed where the family had expressly said it must not be
Instructions about who may handle the body
Some families require specific handling, specific people present, or continuous attendance.
- Arrangements agreed with the establishment and then not honored
- Preparation carried out that the family had said should not happen
- Whether the establishment recorded the instruction anywhere
- What the family put in writing, which is what makes the failure provable
A seasonal and transient population
Deaths here are often of people whose family, home and records are somewhere else.
- Authorization taken from whoever was reachable rather than whoever had priority
- Arrangements made by telephone from another state or another country
- Remains transported out of state or abroad after the fact
- Nobody local able to see the body or check anything
High-density establishments and shared facilities
The work is concentrated in a small area and volume is handled off site.
- Bodies held at a facility other than the establishment the family dealt with
- Identification at collection, at transfer and at preparation
- Release paperwork at each handover, which is what fixes custody
- Personal effects and religious articles that went in and did not come back
What we ask Miami Beach families to look at
- A body shipped to another state with paperwork the receiving home would not accept
- A condominium or building manager who released personal effects to the wrong people
- Embalming required for interstate transport that was billed but not performed
- A Florida death certificate with errors that held up everything at the other end
What actually goes wrong
These are the failures that bring families to this firm. Where a death fell under the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner, the release paperwork usually shows who held custody at the moment one of them happened, and it is among the first records we request.
- Organs, tissue or a prosthesis removed, retained or discarded without anybody asking
- A body shipped to the wrong destination, or held for weeks while paperwork nobody explained was chased
- Jewelry, clothing and personal effects that went in and did not come back
- A preneed contract sold years earlier and then not honored, with the family told the terms were different
- A death certificate completed wrongly, delaying everything that depends on it
- A cremation carried out without the written authorization Florida requires, or on the word of somebody who had no authority to give it
What a family is left with
The part where nobody believed them
Almost every family in these cases spent weeks being told they were mistaken, or upset, or misremembering, before anybody admitted anything. That period is its own harm and it is worth documenting, because it also goes to how the establishment behaved once it knew.
Physical and psychological illness
Sleep that does not return, weight lost, work missed, existing conditions that worsen, and treatment that would not otherwise have been needed. Where somebody has seen a doctor or a counselor about it, those records matter and they are part of the claim rather than a private matter kept out of it.
A family divided by it
These cases regularly split families, because one relative signed something, or was told something, or made a decision the others did not know about. That division is real and it also affects how a claim is brought, since Florida decides by statute who had authority and who may recover.
What Florida law requires you to prove
The claim exists without any physical injury
Florida is unusual here, and it is the single thing most families are told wrongly. The ordinary rule is that mental anguish is not recoverable without an accompanying physical injury. The mishandling of a dead body is a recognized exception to that rule, so a family with no physical injury at all still has a claim.
The statewide page sets out the authority for that, along with the standard of proof Florida applies, which is higher than most families are told and is worth understanding before anybody decides what to do.
Who was entitled to decide, and in what order
Florida decides by statute who may authorize a burial or a cremation, in a fixed order of priority, and a cremation cannot happen at all without that person’s written authorization. A very large share of these cases begins with somebody who was not on that list signing a form, or with nobody signing one. That order, and what it means for who may bring a claim, is set out in full on the statewide page.
The establishment, the licensee and the people who work there
Florida licenses funeral establishments, direct disposal establishments, cremation facilities, cemeteries and the individuals working in them, and a licensee is answerable for what happens under its license. The claim usually runs against more than one of them, and where a body passed between a funeral home, a crematory and a cemetery, the question of who held custody at the moment something went wrong is answered from the release paperwork rather than from anybody’s account.
The deadline
Most claims arising on or after March 24, 2023 have to be filed within two years, and an older one keeps the four years that applied when it happened. The practical deadline is much shorter, because the records that decide these cases sit with the establishment and the physical evidence is regularly destroyed as part of the very thing being complained about.
How we prove it in Miami-Dade County
These cases are proved on instructions and timestamps, and both usually exist in writing somewhere.
- Written instructions about timing, handling or observance, and proof of when they were given
- The contract and every authorization form
- Collection, transfer and preparation logs, with times rather than dates
- Release paperwork at each handover between establishment, crematory and cemetery
- Medical examiner release documentation where District 11 held the body
- Cemetery interment records where a burial is involved
- Every communication with the establishment, in date order
- Treatment records for anybody in the family who sought help afterward
Find the written instruction and the time it was sent. In a case built on a timetable, the gap between when the establishment was told and when it acted is the whole case, and it is usually recoverable from an email header.
What the funeral home and its insurer will say
The response in these files follows a pattern, and it starts with sympathy and a refund. What follows is worth recognizing for what it is.
You have no proof this happened
Said early, and usually while the establishment holds all of the records. The contract, the authorizations, the release paperwork, the logs, the transfer records and the internal correspondence exist and are obtained. Where a regulator has investigated, that file exists too. The family being unable to prove it in the first week is not the same as it being unprovable.
The person who signed authorized exactly this
Then produce the authorization, and let it be compared against who Florida says was entitled to give it and what it actually says. These forms are frequently signed by the wrong relative, signed after the fact, signed in blank, or not signed at all. It is one of the most productive things to examine in the whole file.
That was the crematory, not us
Regularly a real division of responsibility and never a complete answer. A body that moved between a funeral home, a crematory and a cemetery generated release paperwork at every handover, and that paperwork shows who held it when. Each of them carries its own license and its own insurance, and naming all of them at the outset is ordinary practice.
What a claim can include
- Punitive damages where the conduct warrants it. Available in Florida on a heightened standard and on a court’s permission rather than as of right. Concealment, forged paperwork and a pattern of earlier complaints are what move a case into that territory.
- Mental anguish, which is the case. Not an add-on here. The emotional harm to the family is the injury Florida recognizes in these claims, and it is the largest part of what one is worth.
- What the funeral cost, and what putting it right costs. The original arrangements, and a second set where a service, a burial or a disinterment has to be done again.
Why this office for a Miami Beach case
A Miami Beach funeral home claim is filed in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse, and we serve Miami Beach from the firm’s Miami office on Brickell Avenue. We do not claim an office on the Beach and would rather say so than imply one. The case is filed in the same courthouse either way.
Who you would be dealing with
A Miami Beach funeral home case is handled by one of the four trial attorneys in this photograph. You will speak with the attorney who has your case, and you will have their direct line whenever you need them.
They have been trying Miami-Dade County cases together since 1993, and a suit arising in Miami Beach is filed in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse.
Meet the attorneys →Miami Beach funeral home questions
Answered by Brett J. Yonon, who handles the firm's funeral home and wrongful death cases.
My parent lived here part of the year and we are burying them up north. Who is responsible if something goes wrong in transit?
Often the Florida funeral home, because it contracted to prepare and ship your loved one and it chose the carrier. That is not automatic, and the answer depends on what each business agreed to do. We ask for the full transfer file, including the transit permit and the shipping paperwork, and work backward from where the chain broke.
We told them the burial had to happen within a set time and it did not.
Put together the written instruction and the timestamps: when you told them, what they said back, and when things actually happened. Florida recognizes a claim for the emotional harm caused by mishandling a body without any physical injury being required, and an instruction given clearly and then disregarded goes to both the failure and to how the establishment behaved once it knew.
They did something to the body we had specifically said must not be done.
That is among the most serious versions of this claim, and it is worth acting on immediately. Say in writing that nothing further should be done and that everything is to be preserved. What decides the case is what instruction was given, when, and to whom, so gather the correspondence before you talk to anybody at the establishment again.
Where would a Miami Beach funeral home case actually be filed?
In the Eleventh Judicial Circuit at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse. Which courthouse matters more than people expect, because local practice, the judges and the jury pool all differ by circuit. We try these cases in Miami-Dade County rather than referring them out.
Do you have an office in Miami Beach?
No, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. We serve Miami Beach from our Miami office at 1111 Brickell Avenue, 11th Floor, Miami, FL 33131, which is where your case would be handled and where the lawyer working it sits. Nothing about that changes the claim: it is filed in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse either way, and the first conversation costs you nothing wherever you are.
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View →Florida Funeral Home Negligence Lawyer
The Florida standard of proof, the regulator, and the warning signs.
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Verdicts and settlements, including a $3,500,000 funeral home jury verdict.
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Nobody at the funeral home will give you a straight answer
Tell a lawyer what happened. We serve Miami Beach from our Miami office at 1111 Brickell Avenue, 11th Floor, Miami, FL 33131, and the conversation costs nothing even if we tell you there is no case to bring.