The Single Best Thing You Can Do to Ensure Success in 2025

Written by Wendy Russell Wiener, Managing Member, WRW Legal, PLLC

During December, my law practice assisted clients with seven difference instances of “We _____ed the wrong body!”  In some of those cases, the blank was filled with “cremated”, in others with “interred”, in another with “delivered”.  And, yes, I said SEVEN in one month.  You might be thinking, “Wendy, just what type of clients do you have?!”  But, I assure you my clients are the best in our industry and profession.

What did every single one of the incidents have in common?  Simple failure to pay attention.  That’s it.  In every case, a human failed to properly identify the decedent that they were retrieving from refrigeration and took the decedent they retrieved, which was the wrong decedent, to their final disposition or in one case to the wrong destination.

So, what is the single thing that you can do to ensure you avoid the liability associated with these kinds of simple human mistakes?  It’s both the easiest and the hardest thing to do.  The thing is to require that your staff members ssslllooowww down.  In my practice, we call that “taking the Wendy 30”!  I always encourage my clients to have all of their staff members take an extra 30 seconds when attending to decedent care, every single time.

The most liability free professionals are not likely the “quickest” and that’s because, even then rushed off their feet, they take time to confirm that the decedent they are caring for is the right decedent and they take time to confirm the details of the requested decedent care.

I promise that you can get out your phone right now and set a timer for 30 seconds – watch the seconds tick away.  It’s really quite long enough for someone to confirm the decedent’s identify before the decedent is retrieved from the cooler.  And, there’s plenty of time left over to review the file to ensure you know what is to be done with the decedent.  I encourage you to talk through just how 30 seconds is worth millions of dollars during your next staff meeting.

30 seconds – it’s a game changer!