The Process Of Obtaining A Death Certificate

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- When a loved one passes away, it’s a difficult burden for many families to bear.

Along with coping with the loss, family members must also turn their attention to funeral arrangements.

However, before anything can be done a death certificate must first be issued.

“A death certificate certifies the death of an individual and it gives you the cause and the manner of death along with the time and date,” said Greg Merchant, Lowndes County Coroner.

As a funeral director and a coroner there’s a lot of paperwork that comes across Merchant’s desk.

However, one of the of the most vital documents is a death certificate.

“A death certificate is the most important single item that a family needs after a death,” said Merchant.

Only a doctor or a coroner can certify a death certificate.

The process of filling out the paperwork isn’t hard, but it can be time consuming for grieving families waiting to get it.

“The procedure of a death certificate, the certifier which would be the coroner or the doctor, would sign the certificate and then they would send it to the funeral home that the family has used,” Merchant explained. “The funeral home would do a portion of the death certificate and then send it to Jackson where it’s certified. That’s where all of your certified copies will come from”

The coroner said making sure they have accurate and complete information plays a big part in getting the document certified.

If any changes need to be made, certifiers only have one chance to amend the document, after that any other changes would require a court order.

“We try to avoid filing it with pending causes on them,” said Merchant. “Sometimes there’s typographical errors, sometimes there’s an outstanding illness that we are not aware of.”

In Mississippi, a death certificate costs $17 for the first copy and $6 for any additional copy.

In Alabama, the cost is $16 dollars for the first copy and $6 for additional copies.

“Myself as a funeral director, I see families every month that say, how many do I need,” Merchant expressed. “It’s hard for me to say because I don’t know your business and what you’ve got out there. I’ve ordered as few as one and as many as 200.”

In order for a family member to claim life insurance or any other policies from the person who passed away, they must first show the death certificate in order to receive those benefits.

“If you have five insurance policies you are going to need five death certificates, you will need a death certificate for each one of those,” Merchant described. “If you have stocks somewhere, you’re going to need a certificate for those. Anything that you are going to need to prove the death for, you may as well plan to have a certified copy of the death certificate for each one of those items.”

Since December, the Magnolia State began filling out death certificates online opposed to by hand.

Merchant said any immediate family member or anyone who has financial interest into the person who’s died is able to order a death certificate.