Health & Saf. Code, § 102850 · Article 3. Responsibility of Coroner
Health & Saf. Code, § 102850
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) A physician and surgeon, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, funeral director, or other person shall immediately notify the coroner if they have knowledge of a death that occurred or have charge of a body in which death occurred under any of the following circumstances:
(1) Without medical attendance.
(2) During the continued absence of the attending physician and surgeon.
(3) If the attending physician and surgeon, nurse practitioner, or the physician assistant is unable to state the cause of death.
(4) If suicide is suspected.
(5) Following an injury or an accident.
(6) Under circumstances as to afford a reasonable ground to suspect that the death was caused by the criminal act of another.
(b) A person who does not notify the coroner as required by this section is guilty of a misdemeanor.
(c) This section shall become operative on July 1, 2026.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Repealed (in Sec. 7) and added by Stats. 2025, Ch. 271, Sec. 8. (AB 583) Effective January 1, 2026. Operative July 1, 2026, by its own provisions.
Another version listed by the Legislative Counsel
Inoperative July 1, 2026, by its own provisions. Repealed as of January 1, 2027, by its own provisions. See later operative version added by Sec. 8 of Stats. 2025, Ch. 271.
A physician and surgeon, physician assistant, funeral director, or other person shall immediately notify the coroner when they have knowledge of a death that occurred or has charge of a body in which death occurred under any of the following circumstances:
(a) Without medical attendance.
(b) During the continued absence of the attending physician and surgeon.
(c) Where the attending physician and surgeon or the physician assistant is unable to state the cause of death.
(d) Where suicide is suspected.
(e) Following an injury or an accident.
(f) Under circumstances as to afford a reasonable ground to suspect that the death was caused by the criminal act of another.
A person who does not notify the coroner as required by this section is guilty of a misdemeanor.
(g) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2026, and, as of January 1, 2027, is repealed.
History (another version listed by the Legislative Counsel)
Amended by Stats. 2025, Ch. 271, Sec. 7. (AB 583) Effective January 1, 2026. Inoperative July 1, 2026, by its own provisions. Repealed as of January 1, 2027, by its own provisions. See later operative version added by Sec. 8 of Stats. 2025, Ch. 271.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC§ionNum=102850.
- Text hash
- sha256 fa6f44545541bc0bb2eabbc0c0125837b4b2d9260f103a5d1bee82751f7a427a
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
- the Legislative Counsel lists 2 versions of this section; the version shown is the one in force by its history, the other is under "Another version listed by the Legislative Counsel" (expired)
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Health and Safety Code
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