Everyone who dies must have a death certificate issued.
In general, the process begins at the funeral home. When you meet with the funeral director, they will ask you for family information, military information, occupation information, and indicate how you want to proceed with final disposition.
The next step is completed when the coroner directs the funeral director where to electronically send the death certificate for medical certification. If the coroner directs the funeral home to send the death certificate to the primary care physician or the attending physician, by law, that physician/coroner has 48-hours to get the death certificate back to the funeral director. The funeral director then has a total of five-days, including the 48-hours, to send the death certificate back to the state for certified copies. 25-2-110 CRS
Generally, the state takes a few days to make the paper copies available for the decedent’s family or the funeral director to pick up.
By law, you should have your simplified death certificate shortly after 5-days, and if an investigation with autopsy is not involved, you should have the standard death certificate in the same time frame. However, if an investigation and autopsy is involved, you will have to wait 4-6 weeks for the standard death certificate.
You cannot get the death certificate from the Coroner’s Office; it comes directly from the funeral home or from Vital Statistics.