ABSTRACT
The medical examiner’s or coroner’s office is primarily concerned with the investigation of violent, sudden, unexpected, and suspicious deaths. The procedures used in the official medicolegal investigation of death fall under the supervision of the chief medical examiner or coroner, who is responsible for the evaluation and interpretation of the results of this inquiry. It should be noted that the terms
pathologist
,
coroner
, and
medical examiner
may be, but are not always, synonymous. In some jurisdictions, the coroner is not a physician, but an elected or appointed official responsible for taking legal charge of the body. In other jurisdictions, medical examiners are not pathologists, and pathologists are not necessarily medical examiners.
