Inquests

An inquest will be held if it was not possible to find out the cause of death from the post-mortem examination, the death is found to be unnatural or the death occurred whilst the deceased was in detention.

The inquest process is a fact-finding, rather than fault-finding, process to help the coroner establish the cause of death and the appropriate legal conclusion.

The 4 questions the coroner considers as part of their inquest are:

who the deceased was
where, when and how the death occurred.

How the death occurred is usually the focus of the inquest and means ‘by what means’ the death occurred. It isn't within the role of the coroner to look into potential issues regarding matters of negligence.

At the end of the inquest the coroner completes a ‘Record of Inquest’. This contains details about the deceased for the purposes of registering of the death.

Details of our current inquests

Inquests take place at:

Hertfordshire Coroner Service
The Old Courthouse
St Albans Road East
Hatfield
Hertfordshire
AL10 0ES

Map and directions

Contact the coroners service

Support for families

Interim Certificate of Cause of Death

Pre-Inquest Review Hearings

Who can attend an inquest?

What happens after an inquest?

Support for families

The Coroners' Court Support Service, a registered charity, offers support and advice to families and witnesses going to inquests.

The Coroners' Courts Support Service
Victoria Charity Centre
11 Belgrave Road
London
SW1V 1RB

Call 0300 111 2141 or email info@ccsupport.org.uk.

Interim Certificates of Cause of Death

The coroner will issue 6 ‘Coroner’s Interim Certificates of Death’ once an inquest has been opened or an investigation formally commenced. This allows the funeral to be organised and to enable administration of the estate.

Pre-Inquest Review Hearing

Sometimes a Pre-Inquest Review Hearing will be needed if there are particular issues of law or procedure that need to be determined by the coroner before the final inquest, for example:

the witnesses who need to give evidence
the time, date and place of the final inquest
how long the inquest is likely to last
whether a jury will be needed
whether any other hearings are needed.

Who can attend an inquest?

The inquest is a matter of public record. The public are entitled to attend an inquest and the press can potentially attend too.

All interested parties (people entitled to take part and ask the witnesses questions) are entitled to be represented by lawyers at the inquest or any pre-inquest hearings. However, most inquests are conducted without any lawyers being involved.

What happens after an inquest?

The coroner will register the death with the registrar for the district where the death happened. The family may then apply for a death certificate through the registrar by completing an application form provided at the conclusion of the inquest.

Some inquests lead to court proceedings and in such cases the inquest will be adjourned. When the accused perpetrator is committed to crown court to be tried, the coroner can issue documentation to enable the death to be formally registered. After the criminal proceedings have been completed the coroner will decide whether the inquest will be resumed or closed.

Inquest files are archived. Information is available to family members and close friends. Contact the coroner service at coroner.service@hertfordshire.gov.uk or 01707 292707 with your enquiry.

Witnesses, Professional Witnesses and Jurors Fees

Expense sheet - jurors and witnesses (DOCX 121KB) opening in a new window

Expense sheet - professional witnesses (DOCX 125KB) opening in a new window

Name	Type	How we use it	How long we use the information for
ASP.Net_Sessions	Required functionality	An automatic cookie set by our software.	Just for the time you are on our website.
ServerID	Required functionality	An automatic cookie set by our software.	Just for the time you are on our website.
_ga	Required functionality	To track the effectiveness of our website using Google Analytics.	2 years
saved-pages	Performance and feature	To save the pages that you visit by clicking the heart at the top of the page.	1 month
geoPostcode	Performance and feature	This stores your postcode (or partial postcode) when we ask you for your location.	Just for the time you are on our website or 30 days (you choose this).
geoCoordinates	Performance and feature	This stores your location as a pair of latitude / longitude coordinates.	Just for the time you are on our website or 30 days (you choose this).
reckonerName-history	Performance and feature	This keeps a history of all answers submitted to the ready reckoner.	This is set in the control for each ready reckoner. If you haven't interacted with the ready reckoner for the set amount of days, the cookies are deleted.
reckonerName-content	Performance and feature	This keeps a history of what content cards are clicked on when using the ready reckoner.	This is set in the control for each ready reckoner. If you haven't interacted with the ready reckoner for the set amount of days, the cookies are deleted.
SQ_SYSTEM_SESSION	Required functionality	This used to track user sessions on forms hosted on eservices.hertfordshire.gov.uk	Just for the time you are on our website.

Service name	Purpose	More information
Google analytics (_utma/b/c/z)	These are used to compile reports for us on how people use this site. Cookies of the same names are also used for the same purpose by other websites such as Building Futures, Countryside Management Service and Hertfordshire LIS.	Visit the Google Analytics website for more information about the cookies they use. You can prevent data from being collected and used by Google Analytics by installing Google's Opt-out Browser Add-on.
Google Translation - googtrans	This cookie is used to remember which language to translate each page into if you have chosen to do so.	It expires at the end of your browser session.
Bing	We use a Bing cookie to track the success of our marketing campaigns and make them more efficient.	Visit Bing to find out more about their cookies.
Google	We use a Google cookie to track the success of our marketing campaigns and make them more efficient.	Visit Google to find out more about their cookies.
Facebook	We have a number of presences on Facebook, which we may link to. Facebook may set some of its own cookies if you follow these links.	Visit Facebook to find out more about their cookies.
Twitter	We have a number of presences and feeds on Twitter, which you may wish to follow or read from this website. Twitter may set some of its own cookies.	Visit Twitter to find out more about their cookies.
YouTube	We have a YouTube channel, which we may link to. YouTube may set some of its own cookies if you follow those links.	Visit YouTube to find out more about their cookies.
Netloan	This ASP.NET_Sessionid cookie is essential for the Netloan secure online payments website to work, and is set when you arrive to the site. This cookie is deleted when you close your browser.
HotJar	This session cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the sample which is used to generate funnels.	Visit HotJar to find out more about their cookies.
Siteimprove	These cookies are set to help us report on how people are using the site so we can improve it.	Visit Siteimprove to learn more about their cookies.

Inquests

Inquests take place at:

Support for families

Interim Certificates of Cause of Death

Pre-Inquest Review Hearing

Who can attend an inquest?

What happens after an inquest?

Rate this page

Cookies

Why do we use cookies?

How do I change my cookie settings?

Cookies we use

Third party cookies