Death Certificates and Reporting

Reportable Deaths

• All forms of criminal violence, unlawful acts or criminal neglect
• All accidents (motor vehicle, home, falls, industrial, etc.)
• All suicides
• All deaths caused or contributed to by drug/chemical overdose or poisoning
• Sudden death of a person in apparent good health
• Deaths unattended by a medical entity
• Deaths occurring in prison or a penal institution or while in the custody of the police
• Deaths during or due to complications of diagnostic or therapeutic procedures
• Deaths related to employment
• Deaths which occur in any suspicious or unusual manner
• Fetus born deceased due to maternal trauma or drug abuse or in the absence of a physician/midwife
• Deaths wherein the body is unidentified or unclaimed
• Deaths known or suspected as due to contagious disease and constituting a public hazard

Death Certificates

Who May Request a Death Certificate?

Only certain people can request a death certificate. You must be:

• Legal representative of the decedent's estate
• Immediate family member
• Extended family member who indicates a direct relationship to the decedent