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Information on the work of HM Coroner for Warwickshire

A doctor may report a death to a coroner if the:

  • cause of death is unknown
  • death was violent or unnatural
  • death was sudden and unexplained
  • person who died was not visited by a medical practitioner during their final illness
  • medical certificate is not available
  • person who died was not seen by the doctor who signed the medical certificate within 28 days before death or after they died
  • death occurred during an operation or before the person came out of the anaesthetic
  • medical certificate suggests the death may have been caused by an industrial disease or industrial poisoning.

More information on the work of HM Coroners can be found via:

Refer a death to the coroner

Decisions

The coroner may decide that the cause of death is clear. In this case:

  • The doctor signs a medical certificate.
  • You take the medical certificate to the registrar.
  • The coroner issues a certificate to the registrar stating a post-mortem is not needed.

Post-mortems

The coroner may decide a post-mortem is needed to find out how the person died. This will take place in a hospital or mortuary.

You cannot object to a coroner’s post-mortem, but if you ask, the coroner must tell you (and the person’s GP) when and where the examination will take place.

After the post-mortem

The coroner will release the body for a funeral when the post-mortem examination is complete and no further examination is needed.

If the body is released with no inquest, the coroner will send a form (‘Pink Form - form 100B’) to the registrar stating the cause of death.

The coroner will also send a ‘Certificate of Coroner - form Cremation 6’ if the body is to be cremated.

If the coroner decides to hold an inquest

A coroner must hold an inquest if the cause of death is still unknown, or if the person:

  • possibly died a violent or unnatural death
  • died in prison or police custody.

You cannot register the death until after the inquest. The coroner is responsible for sending the relevant paperwork to the registrar.

The coroner can give you an interim death certificate to prove the person is dead. You can use this to let organisations know of the death and apply for probate.

When the inquest is over the coroner will tell the registrar what to put in the register.

Coroner's inquests

View details of up and coming coroner's inquests.

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