§11-5-30. Legislative findings; construction.

(a) The Legislature hereby finds, determines, and declares all of the following:

(1) An unattended and sudden death is one of society's most tragic events and should receive the appropriate caring, competent, and thorough attention of all levels of government.

(2) A suspicious, sudden, or violent death is very difficult to investigate and to accurately determine the cause and manner of death for the death certificate.

(3) Medical examiners and coroners determine the cause of death and with other forensic scientists and investigators determine the manner of death.

(4) Death certificates issued on unattended, sudden, and violent deaths greatly impact government spending decisions, the living loved ones, and insurance decisions so that the accuracy of the death certificate is of great concern to the Legislature.

(5) There are currently no minimum standards of training for county coroners.

(6) Local coroners or non-physician death investigators are necessary and critical to the investigation of unattended deaths in Alabama.

(7) The competency of unattended death investigations is directly related to the minimum education and training standards of the investigators and standards need to be established and implemented statewide.

(b) The provisions of this article are to be liberally construed to accomplish the purposes of this section and to promote the same, which are hereby declared to be public policy of this state.

(Act 2006-581, p. 1527, §1.)