ABSTRACT
Medicolegal death investigations are done because they are required or provided for by law. In certain types of death, usually those involving injury or those that are sudden and unexplained, the law provides a mechanism for death investigation to occur. Deaths due to homicide, suicide, accidents, and unexplained causes are common examples. Such investigations are usually performed by the local, county, or state governments, which have death investigation systems established for such purposes. Medicolegal death investigations are usually conducted by medical examiners and coroners, who will be more fully discussed in other chapters. Family permission is not usually required for medicolegal death investigations to occur because such investigations are required by law to enable collection of evidence and facts to resolve criminal or other legal issues that may arise because of the death. In some instances, the law may provide an opportunity for the family to object to a medicolegal death investigation or autopsy, but usually there is a mechanism for the medical examiner or coroner to conduct the examination or death investigation, if needed, despite a family’s objections. In such cases, a court order may be needed to conduct the death investigation, but such cases are rare.
