When a death goes to the ACT coroner: the first days

A.1Which deaths an ACT coroner looks into

Not every death goes to the coroner. The kinds of death a coroner investigates are set by the ACT’s Coroners Act 1997, and an ACT coroner can investigate only when the death happened in the ACT or the person who died ordinarily lived here.

The Coroners Court’s guide for families lists the situations in which an inquest will occur. One of them turns on time and paperwork rather than on how the person died: they had not seen a doctor in the six months before they died, or no doctor has given a medical certificate certifying the cause of death.

The ACT Policing Coroners team, a small group of officers who specialise in coronial work, reports the death to the coroner and helps the coroner investigate it. They act for the coroner and under the coroner’s control, and the court is clear that police at the place of a death does not, on its own, mean a criminal investigation has begun.

A.2The Forensic Medicine Centre and the examination

ACT Courts and Tribunal manages the Forensic Medicine Centre, where forensic pathologists examine people for the ACT coroner and give the coroner an opinion on the cause of death. An examination ranges from scans, toxicology tests and a look at the outside of the body to an internal examination, or autopsy, and the coroner, who directs it, can call for more tests.

Families seldom deal with the centre itself: their main contacts are ACT Policing and the ACT Coroners Office. The centre is closed to the public and to children, family or friends go there only by appointment, for instance to identify the person, and funerals and viewings are held elsewhere, normally at the funeral director’s premises.

A.3The family’s say, and identification

Before an examination, the investigating police officer asks a member of the immediate family or the family’s nominated representative for the family’s views, so concerns are best raised with that officer straight away. The coroner can weigh those views and may decide no examination is needed when the circumstances already show clearly how and why the person died; if the coroner goes ahead over an objection, police or court staff explain the reasons to the family representative. Where a faith needs a prompt burial or particular care of the body, the court makes every effort to accommodate it, and examinations are done as quickly as possible, though the decision stays with the coroner.

A family member usually identifies the person by viewing them and signing a statement; where dental records or DNA are needed instead, release can take longer.

A.4Release to the funeral home

Once the examination is done, the coroner usually releases the person into the care of the family’s chosen funeral home one business day later. If release looks like being delayed, the court’s staff get in touch to talk it through. Because most people stay at the centre only a few days, families can begin funeral arrangements as soon as is practical for them.

The coroner’s investigation does not stop at release. In the ACT it is called an inquest from the moment the death is referred, and while many inquests are finished within 12 months or sooner, some take years. The next part of this guide, how an ACT inquest runs, follows it through to the coroner’s findings, and registering a death in the ACT explains the interim death certificate a family can use in the meantime.