N.Y. Laws » CHAPTER County / ARTICLE Coroner, Coroner's Physician and Medical Examiner
New York Consolidated Laws

N.Y. County Law § 671 (2026)

General duties of coroner, or coroner and coroner's physician, or medical examiner; additional duties may be directed

✓ current as of May 2026
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§ 671. General duties of coroner, or coroner and coroner's physician,
or medical examiner; additional duties may be directed. 1. The coroner,
or if he is not a physician duly licensed to practice medicine in this
state, the coroner and a coroner's physician, together, or in counties
in which the office of coroner has been abolished, the medical examiner,
  (a) shall make inquiry into unnatural deaths within his county as
prescribed by law;
  (b) shall make inquiry into all deaths whether natural or unnatural in
his or her county occurring to an incarcerated individual of a
correctional facility as defined by subdivision three of section forty
of the correction law, whether or not the death occurred inside such
facility.
  2. The coroner shall perform such additional and related duties as may
be prescribed by law and directed by the board of supervisors.
  3. In those counties in which the office of coroner has been
abolished, the medical examiner shall perform such additional and
related duties involving exercise of professional skills and training as
may be prescribed by the board of supervisors and the district attorney.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4 cases, 1991–2012 · leading case: People v. Washington, 654 N.E.2d 967 (N.Y. 1995).
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People v. Washington, 654 N.E.2d 967 (N.Y. 1995). · cites it 2× “Further, the District Attorney or Police Commissioner may require OCME to deliver, in addition to the autopsy report, "such further records, and such daily information, as they may deem necessary" (Administrative Code of City of NY § 17-205; see also , County Law §§ 671, 673,…”
New York City Health & Hospitals Corp. v. New York State Comm'n of Corr., 969 N.E.2d 765 (N.Y. 2012). “*246 It must, in addition, be afforded a report of the autopsy necessarily to be performed in the event of an inmate death (County Law § 671 [1]; § 674 [5]; § 677 [6]) and is authorized itself to command the performance of an additional autopsy (Correction Law § 47 [1] [c]).”
Schwartz v. State, 162 Misc. 2d 313 (1994). “In 1987, at the urging of the SCOC, both of these statutes were amended to delete any limitation on the duty to perform autopsies on inmates dying outside a correctional facility, and County Law § 671 (1) (b) was added to require Coroners and Medical Examiners to conduct an…”
Forbes v. Park Ridge Mental Health Ctr., 172 A.D.2d 1065 (N.Y. App. Div. 1991). “He further stated that the records would permit his office to set forth accurately in decedent’s death certificate the cause of his death.”
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