Why are inquests opened then adjouned?
When someone (in the UK) dies due to something other than natural causes, the news story often says "an inquest was opened and adjourned". Why bother opening it if they're just going to adjourn it straight away??
Example: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/susse...
Answers:
An inquest is opened, and if all parties agree can proceed, however it is usually the case that witnesses have to be called from near and afar, and evidence prepared so the various parties discuss and agree to a time and date on which they can proceed. The presiding officer will then adjourn till that date and time.
I'm not a British Barrister or Solicitor, but I am an American attorney and I see similar things happen here. The reason is probably that there is a time deadline to begin an inquest. Sometimes these deadlines are too short for the investigation to be completed. When that is the case, they open the inquest to satisfy the time deadline and then adjourned it until they have the evidence they need to complete the inquest. For example, in the U.S. we have 5 days after an election to certify the results. We usually have not finished counting the paper ballots in that 5 day period, so we open the certification meeting and ask the Bureau of Elections when they will be finished. We then adjourn until that date. I think this is a reasonable guess, but please understand it is only a guess. I googled your general question and learned that inquests are subject to a time constraint. I found several links to stories about inquests being adjourned to order to allow more time for investigation.
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