Provider Of Florida Death Records

By Claire Dowell


Death is but an essential part in the natural order of things. It is an inevitable and dreaded event bound to consume everyone at a certain point in life. Deaths are one of the most important determinants of a place's health status, and therefore have been promptly and meticulously archived for centuries.

Certificates of death are dubbed as the most important legal article known to man, simply because they serve as the most accurate proof that someone has truly died, making him or her free from any legal accountabilities. Death records contain a deceased person's name, race, age, gender, and the cause, time, and date of death. Such documents are inked by the licensed medical practitioner or coroner who conducted the post-mortem evaluation. Monitoring and predicting disease trends among a population, the granting of wills and the cessation of social security payments, pensions and other benefits are some notable uses for death records.

By the mid-1930s, states across America started to record deaths for the reasons described earlier. Since then, different regulations and procedures have been adopted per state regarding the maintenance, protection and dissemination of death records. In the State of Florida, for instance, records of death are held by the State Department of Health, specifically at the Bureau of Vital Statistics.

In order to begin the process of obtaining Florida death records, one must take into account the type of death record that you are allowed to procure. There are two types of death records in Florida - "Without cause" and "With cause". The former are documents that can be accessed and furnished by the general public. The latter, however, can only be obtained by the decedent's immediate family, the family's legal proxy, and a person who can provide a will in pursuant to the state statute 732.502. Fifty years after the date of death, death records "With cause" become public information, making them available for public acquisition.

After gathering enough information about the death of a certain person and defining what type of death record you can obtain, you can now apply for a copy of a death record to the Bureau of Vital Statistics in person or via mail. This is done by providing information such as the name, gender, and age of the deceased person, the date of death, the county or city of death, and the Social Security Number in the application form. For identification purposes, you must also provide your full name, state your relationship with the decedent, send a valid form of identification, be it your state ID, birth certificate or driver's license, and affix your signature in the said application. Each certified copy of a death record costs $5.00, with an additional $4.00 for any additional copy ordered. Payments must be in the form of a check or money order payable to the Bureau of Vital Statistics. Finally, mail these prerequisites to the office of the said department. Requests are processed within 2-3 working days after the order has been received by the bureau.

In recent years, the Internet has revolutionized communication and productivity. The World Wide Web has become the perfect embodiment of convenience. A good example of the productivity and expediency that it brings to the table can be found in the procurement of public documents such as death records. Free-of-charge or fee based, government and private service providers get the job done by providing comprehensive and instantaneous results for all your public record needs.




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