October 27, 2017
If you're talking about a civil case, and a hospital's failure to request the medical examiner or coroner do an autopsy, AND the next-of-kin specifically requested it, but it was not mandatory (eg. homicide victim, death in police custody, etc), you may have a basis for requesting a spoliation sanction in a civil action against the hospital, but I don't believe there is a separate cause of action for failing to do a non-mandatory autopsy. If it was a mandatory autopsy that was not done, the Medical Examiner or coroner would be responsible party. It's an issue I haven't seen personally, so I would like to hear what other attorneys on here have to say about it.
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