Work out whether a death is reportable and whether an inquest is mandatory
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- From the police report, the medical report of death and the lawyer's instructions, set out the facts that bear on whether the death is reportable and whether an inquest is required: the place and circumstances, any custody, detention or police operation, any health-related procedure, and what the evidence does and does not disclose about identity, date, place, cause and manner. Cite the statutory test that each fact is said to meet. Do not decide the classification.
- What the lawyer must review
- The lawyer decides which Coroners Act applies, whether the death is reportable, whether a senior coroner has exclusive jurisdiction, and whether an inquest is mandatory or may be dispensed with. The lawyer does not treat a bench-book summary as a substitute for the section.
Open a jurisdiction version of this task to see which instruments apply: NSWVICQLD
Who does what
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Assistance | From the police report, the medical report of death and the lawyer's instructions, set out the facts that bear on whether the death is reportable and whether an inquest is required: the place and circumstances, any custody, detention or police operation, any health-related procedure, and what the evidence does and does not disclose about identity, date, place, cause and manner. Cite the statutory test that each fact is said to meet. Do not decide the classification. |
| Lawyer | Set the scope, supervise the work closely, verify every part relied on, resolve omissions and exceptions, and approve the exact output. |
Checklist
- Read section 6 and section 27 of the Act that applies, not only the extracted note.
- Check each custody, police-operation or health-procedure fact against the police or hospital report.
- Do not describe a death of a child or a person in disability accommodation as a mandatory inquest unless the section opened for that State says so.
- Where the person who died was a First Nations person, read the State Coroner's protocol the bench book describes before the timetable is set.
Sources
- Coroners Act 2009 (NSW) s 27, when an inquest is required · 2026-10-22
- Judicial Commission of NSW, Local Court Bench Book, Coronial matters · 2026-10-22
These are suggested working checks. Confirm the required checking with the responsible lawyer before work starts; the checking approach does not establish permission to use AI.
The Victorian mandatory-inquest provisions were not opened. Do not state a Victorian category from this note.