Investigations of Deaths, Injuries and Missing Persons

ORS 146.035
Chief Medical Examiner

  • personnel
  • records
  • right to examine records

(1)

There is established within the Department of State Police the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the purpose of directing and supporting the state death investigation program.

(2)

The Chief Medical Examiner shall manage all aspects of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s program.

(3)

Subject to the State Personnel Relations Law, the Chief Medical Examiner may employ or discharge other personnel of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

(4)

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner shall:

(a)

File and maintain appropriate reports on all deaths requiring investigation.

(b)

Maintain an accurate list of all active district medical examiners, assistant district medical examiners and designated pathologists.

(c)

Transmit monthly to the Department of Transportation a report for the preceding calendar month of all information obtained under ORS 146.113 (Authority to order removal of body fluids).

(5)

Notwithstanding ORS 192.345 (Public records conditionally exempt from disclosure) (36):

(a)

Any parent, spouse, sibling, child or personal representative of the deceased, or any person who may be criminally or civilly liable for the death, or their authorized representatives respectively, may examine and obtain copies of any medical examiner’s report, autopsy report or laboratory test report ordered by a medical examiner under ORS 146.117 (Autopsies).

(b)

The system described in ORS 192.517 (Access to records of individual with disability or individual with mental illness) (1) shall have access to reports described in this subsection as provided in ORS 192.517 (Access to records of individual with disability or individual with mental illness). [1973 c.408 §4; 1987 c.142 §1; 1995 c.504 §3; 1995 c.744 §8; 2003 c.14 §60; 2005 c.498 §1; 2009 c.222 §§3,5; 2011 c.9 §7; 2013 c.1 §§6,7; 2015 c.14 §3; 2017 c.151 §6]

See also annotations under ORS 146.040 in permanent edition.

Notes of Decisions

Provision that allows parent, spouse, child and other specified persons to examine and obtain copies of reports ordered by medical examiner does not imply, by negative inference, that those reports are exempt from disclosure for all other persons. Colby v. Gunson, 224 Or App 666, 199 P3d 350 (2008)

Source

Last accessed
May 30, 2023

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