A coroner's court is a legal body that is established to determine how, when and why a person died. In some cases, a coroner’s court will also attempt to determine the individual's identity. The process of determination is known as an inquest.
The coroner's court holds an inquest when the cause of a person's death remains in doubt, even after a post-mortem. A post-mortem is an examination of a body after death that is carried out by a pathologist (a doctor who specialises in medical diagnosis). It is also known as an autopsy.
Coroners are independent judicial officers. They are usually lawyers, but in some cases they may be doctors. Coroners investigate violent, unnatural or sudden deaths where the cause of death is unknown.
