Will holding an inquest affect the funeral arrangements?

Where an inquest is required, the Coroner has temporary control of the body of the person who died to enable the investigation to take place.  The Coroner's priority is to ensure that an inquest can determine how the person died if it is possible to do so.  This may cause a delay to any funeral arrangements,  but the Coroner recognises the importance to families and friends of keeping this delay to a minimum.

The post-mortem is carried out as soon as possible after the death, but timing does depend on the availability of a suitable pathologist. Where the post-mortem needs to be carried out by a forensic pathologist or pathologist from outside of Jersey that may mean the post-mortem will take longer. 

The coroner’s officer or your funeral director will let you know the likely timescale as soon as that is confirmed and whether there are any delays that might affect the timing of a funeral.

Saying goodbye

While the Coroner has control of the body you may be able to see the body if you would like to.  You should speak with the assigned coroner’s officer if you might want to touch your loved one’s body as this may not always be possible, for example, where evidence needs to be taken for use in criminal proceedings.

The Coroner's aim is to let the next of kin have the body for burial or cremation as soon as possible. The coroner’s officer will let you know when your loved one’s body can be returned to you. The Coroner will usually be able to release the body so that the funeral can take place after any post-mortem examination has been carried out and an inquest has been opened. This will often be well before the final report of the post mortem has been prepared and the cause of a person's death has been determined. 

Deciding what to do with samples taken at a post-mortem

Sometimes samples of blood or bodily tissue will be kept after the body has been released for a funeral to take place.  This might occur if further tests and investigations are needed to determine the cause of death.  Samples may need to be retained for several months or longer if a criminal investigation is required and the samples may be used in evidence.

If you are the next of kin then you will be given options to decide what happens to the tissue that has been kept for further testing.  The coroner's officer will provide further information about those options and a form to state your preferences.

Registering the death and interim death certificates

The next of kin will not be able to complete the registration of the death with the Superintendent Registrar until the cause of death is known.

However, once an inquest has been opened the Coroner can give you a Certificate of the Fact of Death to help you deal with administrative and probate matters. This is certificate is sometimes called an 'interim death certificate'.