HAVING A close family member go missing represents a profound emotional trauma for all those involved. To this must be added the practical difficulties that arise when an adult disappears without explanation.
The reasons people go missing and do not return are many and complex, and range from seeking to escape from relationship and financial problems to abduction and murder. As well as baffled and grieving relatives, the missing may leave behind homes, jobs, bank accounts, insurance policies, cars and other property and, inevitably, bills. At the moment there is no easy way of tying up these loose ends.
When a person remains missing for a long time, there is no simple way of legally presuming him or her to be dead. Under the law a missing person is presumed alive for seven years, after which time he or she is presumed dead. This means that a relative can only apply to the High Court to have a person presumed dead after seven years, and that presumption deals only with the person’s estate. It does not lead to the issuing of a death certificate or solve other issues, such as the legal status of a spouse or civil partner. In rare cases, an inquest can be held in the Coroner’s Court to have a person declared dead, allowing the issuing of a death certificate.
The Law Reform Commission has just published provisional proposals to deal with such problems. These include legislation to allow families to take out a limited grant of administration of the missing person’s estate in the immediate aftermath of their going missing so that they can pay bills or renew insurance.
They also include proposals to allow families to obtain a declaration of presumed death from the Coroner’s Court in cases where death is almost certain; and in the High Court where it is highly probable. The commission recommends that such a declaration should have the effect of bringing to an end a marriage or civil partnership. If the missing person returns, the question of whether any such marriage or partnership remains valid should have regard to the special circumstances, it recommends, inviting further discussion on this issue.
These proposals are provisional, as they come in a consultation paper which is now open for public discussion, prior to the publication of a report, which will contain proposed legislation. Today, hundreds of Irish people have been missing for between one and seven years. Their families deserve that these proposals receive speedy and serious attention.