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Medicolegal Death Investigation System Workshop Summary (2003) / Chapter Skim
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3. Overview of the Medicolegal Death Investigation System in the United States
Pages 7-11

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From page 7...
... Death investigations aid civil litigation, such as in malpractice, personal injury, or life insurance claims. Death investigations are critical for many aspects of public health practice and research, including surveillance, epidemiology, and prevention programs, most often in injury prevention and control but also in prevention of suicide, violence, or substance abuse.
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From page 8...
... Coroner laws were imported into the colonies with the early colonists. For example, the British Colony of Georgia followed British Common Law in 1733; the first state constitution mentioned coroners; and subsequent statutes described coroner duties.
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From page 9...
... Thus, at a time of growing public health needs, few coroner or medical examiner offices have formal relationships with health departments. The quality of a death investigation system is difficult to assess, but it can be measured with several indicators.
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From page 10...
... There are 41 training programs that can accept approximately 70 forensic residents each year, however, many of those positions remain unfilled. Given that there are 2,000 death investigation jurisdictions in the United States, it is clear that there are not enough board-certified forensic pathologists to meet the nation's public health and criminal justice needs.
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From page 11...
... Postmortem Examinations Act of 1954 (Model legislation developer! by the National Association of Counties to promote the shift from coroners to professional medical examiners trained and creclentialed in medicine)
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Key Terms

  • death investigation
  • medical examiners
  • medicolegal death
  • medical examiner
  • criminal justice

  • investigation jurisdictions
  • examiner offices
  • forensic pathologists
  • investigations provide
  • subsequent statutes

  • injury prevention
  • legislation requiring
  • diverse death
  • medieval england
  • personnel contributes

  • coroner office
  • maryland legislation
  • british common
  • growing nationwide
  • skilled personnel

  • investigation statutes
  • wide variation
  • postmortem examinations
  • common law
  • professional medical

  • followed british
  • insufficient funding
  • insurance claims
  • highly decentralized
  • child maltreatment


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