SB 712

Under current law, coroners or medical examiners investigate certain deaths

and have various duties and powers specified by law related to deaths occurring in

this state, including receiving reports of deaths, participating in inquest

proceedings, determining causes of death, ordering autopsies, administering

provisions related to making anatomical gifts, and issuing cremation permits.

Current law provides for the election of coroners for four-year terms by the electors

of each county or of more than one county in certain cases, except that a county with

a population of 500,000 or more must, and a county with a population of less than

500,000 may, abolish the office of coroner and establish a medical examiner system.

Under the medical examiner system, a medical examiner is appointed by the county

board or, in populous counties, by the county executive. Current law does not

otherwise specify any particular requirements that an individual must fulfill in

order to hold the office of coroner or to be appointed as a medical examiner.

Licensure of medical examiners, medicolegal investigators, and others

The bill establishes a prohibition against performing a death investigation or

performing the functions of a medical examiner or a person who assists a coroner or

medical examiner with a death investigation (medicolegal investigation staff

member) without a license in medicolegal investigation issued by the Medicolegal

Investigation Examining Board, except that the bill exempts coroners and certain

accredited medical examiners from this requirement. Any person who violates the

prohibition may be subject to a fine of not more than $1,000 and imprisonment of up

to 90 days.

The bill requires the board to issue an initial license in medicolegal

investigation, at no charge, to every individual who is serving as a nonaccredited

medical examiner or medicolegal investigation staff member in this state on the bill's

effective date. The bill also allows an individual who is serving as coroner on the bill's

effective date to elect to receive such a license. The bill requires each such individual

to complete, prior to the next license renewal date, 40 hours of education, except that

the bill allows an individual who holds a credential, in good standing, from a

nationally recognized accreditation organization specializing in death investigation

education to receive a waiver from completing 16 of those 40 hours. The bill requires

the board to provide, at no cost, the required hours of training to these individuals.

The bill also requires the board to issue a license in medicolegal investigation

to any individual who is appointed as a nonaccredited medical examiner or is hired

to serve as a medicolegal investigation staff member after the bill's effective date, if

the individual pays any initial license fee imposed by the board. The bill requires

such an individual to complete a 40-hour death investigation training course within

18 months of initial licensure.

Finally, the bill allows an individual who is not serving as a medical examiner

or medicolegal investigator to obtain a license in medicolegal investigation from the