What Happens When A Death Is Reported To The Coroner

We do understand that dealing with the legal formalities following a death can be challenging at what is already a difficult time.  We will do all we can to help.  These pages explain everything that will happen between your relative’s death being reported to the Coroner and their body being released for the funeral.

When a death is reported to the office, the Coroner will consider the information and do one of 4 things:     

1. Determine that the death is due to natural causes and notify the Dr that the cause of death should be submitted to the Medical Examiner Service for consideration and scrutiny.  If after scrutiny the Medical examiner can support the cause of death offered, then the certificate will be written by the Dr and sent to the ME to countersign. 

2. Order a Post Mortem examination. Depending on the results, the Coroner will (a) find the death natural and close the case; (b) open an investigation, where we obtain further information from doctors or others involved; or (c) open an inquest, which is a fact-finding court hearing about the circumstances of death.

3.      Open an investigation without a Post Mortem examination to gather more evidence.

4.      Open an inquest without a Post Mortem examination.

Each of these options are explained in the pages below.

Not all deaths are referred to the Coroner however.  Following Government changes in September 2024, all deaths where a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) is issued by a doctor need to be scrutinised by the Medical Examiner Service, who will provide independent scrutiny of all deaths that are not investigated by the Coroner.  This scrutiny will be undertaken by a Medical Examiner who is an experienced Doctor with additional training in death certification and with a review of the documents circumstances of death.

We understand that many families are concerned about the process and especially whether it will delay their funeral.  We always try to complete the Coroner's inquiries as quickly as possible and keep any delay to a minimum.  The following pages contain information about the timescales you can expect and what to do about funeral arrangements.