death certificate

I live in Florida, where my husband and I both lived and he died. At the time of his death, October 18, 1999; we were living apart. There was no legal sepsration or divorce. I was the one who had to sign all the papers at the funeral home. When I got my husband's death certificate, the "Marital Status" section read "SINGLE", and the "Surviving Spouce" section was left blank. I still have not recieved Social Security benifits. My employer did pay off on the death benifit that they carried when I provided a copy of the Marriage Certificate.
I have been trying to get a corrected death certificate from the funeral home for 14 months now with "NO" results. I call them weekly, and every week I am told that the funeral director that is working on this will call me back. He has returned only one of my calls over this entire time. I have been told of at least three lawyers that they have hired for this problem. I have been told that all the states have been checked for any record of divorce, which there was no divorce to find record of, but I understood that this was part of the process. I was told just this morning that it was going to cost the funeral home $3000.00 and that they were not going to pay that much to get this fixed.
Please, I am getting very tired of this. Is there anything that I can do to push the issue or even get this fixed myself???
Thanks for any help,
Sue

FEB. 10, 2001

DEAR ALLBIRDS:

Who is shown as "informant" on the death certificate? If a person's name is shown, it's usually a relative (who is assumed to know about the family or person who died) who furnished the information. However, in your case you seem to be implying that the funeral home or the attending physician submitted the erroneous information. At some point, you need to find out exactly who furnished the death certificate information.

Did the funeral home offer any explanation for why the marital status was listed as such? Instead of trying to work through the funeral home to get the correction made, you need to contact someone directly at the Florida State Department of Health:

TO GET AN AMENDED DEATH CERTIFICATE ($20 Fee Required), call (904) 359-6900, Extension 1073

If you can't get satisfactory resolution of your problem over the phone, then send a letter or e-mail to:

DR. ROBERT BROOKS, Secretary of Florida Department of Health
His E-Mail Address: [email protected]
Mailing Address:
Office of Vital Statistics
P. O. Box 210
1217 Pearl St.
Jacksonville, FL 32231-0042

If you don't get your problem resolved within a 1-2 week time period, then send copies of your letter to the Governor and ask him to intervene (send me an e-mail and I can get that address for you, if necessary).

It seems like the funeral home has not been completely honest with you and has not given you the whole story. It's extremely odd and unusual that they lawyers or funeral home would go to the expense of spending $3,000 to find out if you were divorced, because normally they would accept someone's word at face value that you were married. The divorce record search is NOT (as you say) NORMALLY "PART OF THE PROCESS). I hope that these lawyers or funeral home is not thinking of asking you to pay this $3,000. If so, then you should refuse to.

Unless there is some valid explanation or complicated circumstances, it shouldn't be that difficult for the Vital Statistics Office to retype and reissue you a CERTIFIED CORRECTED CERTIFICATE at little or not cost to you.

Just be patient and with a little determination, your problem will eventually be resolved.

SINCERELY,

[email protected]

FEB. 17, 2001

DEAR ALLBIRDS:

Please let me know if you are ever successful in getting the death certificate corrected, whether it was an easy process or a difficult one. I am interested in seeing your case resolved successfully.

[email protected]