There are several steps that need to be taken before death records are handed over officially to the family of the deceased. First, the deceased must go through the coroner or medical examiner so that a cause of death can be established and written up in a report. In cases where an examiner doesn’t know whether or not a victim is brain dead, usually if they are on life support, the examiner must fill out the correct paperwork. Failure to do so is a crime and an examiner could lose his or her license over this. In the past, when an examiner has failed to complete the proper paperwork on time, the deceased was still receiving benefits or listed as voting in elections. When the cause of death is already known and there is no need for an autopsy, a police officer can sign the death certificate, though this is very rare.

After information about the death reaches all the appropriate people, the death records can be given to the family of the deceased. It’s vital that the process of creating the death records goes smoothly for both the family of the deceased and legal authorities. The death of a loved one can be very traumatic and the last thing a family needs is to be dealing with paperwork problems when they should be mourning.