Coroner’s report

A coroner’s report is a document containing information regarding the cause of a person’s death.

Coroners are independent judicial officers who investigate deaths that have been reported to them. A death may be reported to a coroner in a range of circumstances, primarily where the death was sudden, violent, or unnatural.

A coroner is authorised to order a post-mortem examination or hold an inquest into the death, the results of which will form a coroner’s report.

An apostille certificate authenticates documents to be legally valid in certain foreign countries. A coroner’s report may be used as supporting evidence to access assets held abroad in a will or as a life insurance policy. You may be asked to get the report apostilled by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Legalisation Office (FCDO) to prove its validity.

The process to notarise and apostille a coroner’s report will depend on how it was issued.

A coroner’s report may be provided in any of the following ways:

a. The original coroner’s report, signed with a wet ink signature of the named coroner.
b. The original coroner’s report, signed with a printed or electronic signature of the named coroner.
c. A photocopy of your coroner’s report.
d. A printout of your electronic coroner’s report, produced from the original PDF or other electronic document.

Notary.co.uk can assist you with our fast and cost-effective services and walk you through every step of the process:

1. Contact us and tell us what you need. We will ask you to complete our online Client Registration Form and explain how we will complete the identification and verification process.

2. If the document was issued in an original physical version and signed with a wet ink signature of the named coroner, it does not strictly need to be notarised. If you are using it abroad, you may get an apostille on the document directly from the FCDO.

3. If the document was issued in an original physical version and with a printed or electronic signature, it cannot be apostilled without first being notarised. We can notarise the document by checking the document is authentic and then attaching a notarial certificate to the original.

4. If the document is a photocopy of the report, we will also need to notarise the document prior to getting an apostille. We will check the document is authentic and then attach a notarial certificate to the photocopy.

5. If the document has been issued electronically, we will also need to notarise the document prior to getting an apostille. You will need to share the original email in which the report was attached as a PDF, and we will check the document is authentic. We will then attach a notarial certificate to the printed version.

6. We will obtain the apostille by submitting the document at the FCDO on either our Premium or Standard service. If you need Embassy legalisation, we will also complete this after the apostille process.

7. When all is complete, we will email a PDF scan of your document. We will then return the document to you by your chosen method, whether by collection, post, or courier.

Notarisation will be carried out by one of our experienced notaries. They will carry out all required checks and issue a notarial certification.

To obtain an apostille, we will submit your coroner’s report to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Legalisation Office (FCDO). There are two FCDO Legalisation Office counters – one in London (Premium Service) and one in Milton Keynes (Standard Service). We offer a Premium same-day apostille service for urgent matters and standard 3-5 working day apostille service if you are not in a rush.

If you need your coroner’s report notarised or either legalised with an apostille or at an embassy, we’ll be able to support you with our exceptional services.