Lisa Carlson is a former special education teacher who is now affiliated with two national nonprofit organizations – the Funeral Ethics Organization, which she founded, and the Funeral Consumers Alliance, where she served first as a board member and later as executive director. Based in Vermont, both organizations work for consumer protection and public education for consumers of funeral goods and services.

Like Lynch, Carlson is an author. When her husband committed suicide in the mid-1980s, Carlson wanted to care for his body at home. Unable to find much helpful information, Carlson researched the matter herself; that research formed the basis of her book, Caring for the Dead: Your Final Act of Love. The book covers federal and state laws regarding funerals and includes a guide to planning after-death care, with or without a funeral director.

From rhetoric to legal showdown
Both Carlson and Lynch are widely quoted as experts in their fields. Both are dedicated to educating the public about end-of-life arrangements. But Carlson is a funeral-industry watchdog, while Lynch is a staunch defender of his profession. They know each other, and they quote each other’s work, but they disagree on many points – and they are fundamentally at odds over the degree to which the law should dictate standards for funeral directors and services. Now their differences have moved beyond rhetoric and into the courtroom.

After The Undertaking aired in 2007, Carlson commented on the program in publications of the Funeral Ethics Organization and Funeral Consumers Alliance. In September 2008, Lynch filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court claiming Carlson’s statements in those publications were defamatory. The suit names Carlson, the Funeral Ethics Organization, Funeral Consumers Alliance Inc. and Funeral Consumers Alliance of Idaho as defenders.

In his suit, Lynch states that Carlson and the organizations accused him of holding “unethical and untrue positions on the topic of after-life care and funeral options” and claims that, as a result, he has suffered “humiliation, mortification, and embarrassment, both individually and professionally” as well as business losses, loss of goodwill, harm to business reputation and loss of esteem and standing in the community and the industry. He’s seeking more than $75,000 in damages and legal fees, and has asked the court to order Carlson and the organizations to publish retractions and prevent them from using his name or likeness in any future publications.

Attorney William Burdett is representing the Funeral Ethics Organization in the case, pro bono. Burdett’s response to the complaint says the statements Lynch cites in his suit are not defamatory and in some cases are true; he also says Lynch has not shown damage from the remarks. The Executive Director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance has called the suit “outrageous.”

Barring a settlement, the case is expected to go to trial in September or October of this year.