An Arkansas death certificate must be filed with the Division of Vital Records within ten days of the death, with a preliminary fact-of-death record filed within three calendar days.1Justia. Arkansas Code 20-18-601 – Registration Generally The funeral director who takes custody of the body handles most of the filing, the attending physician certifies the cause of death, and the coroner steps in when the death falls into certain categories. Families rarely file anything themselves, but they do provide the personal information, and they order the certified copies needed to settle the estate, file insurance claims, and close accounts.
Who Files What
Arkansas assigns the funeral director four duties: file the death certificate and the fact-of-death record, collect personal details about the deceased from the next of kin or the best available source, obtain the medical certification from the responsible physician, and provide a certificate with enough identifying information for the certifier to complete their portion.1Justia. Arkansas Code 20-18-601 – Registration Generally
The information the funeral home will ask you for includes the deceased’s full legal name, Social Security number, date and place of birth, occupation, marital status, and parents’ names. Bringing this to your first meeting speeds the filing. If anything on the record is wrong later, the funeral director is also the person who corrects the personal-information section.
Medical Certification and the Three-Day Clock
The physician in charge of the patient’s care for the illness or condition that caused death completes and signs the medical certification. That physician has three business days after receiving the certificate from the funeral director to finish it and return it.2Code of Arkansas Rules. 17 CAR 140-2801 – Requirements of Licensed Physicians in Completing Death Certificates The three-day clock is paused whenever a coroner’s investigation is required.
Certification generally goes through the Division of Vital Records’ designated electronic system unless the Division grants an exception.1Justia. Arkansas Code 20-18-601 – Registration Generally
Alternate Certifiers
If the attending physician is unavailable or gives approval, someone else can sign the medical certification, provided they have access to the patient’s medical history, have reviewed the coroner’s report if one was required, and the death was due to natural causes. The eligible alternates are an associate physician, the chief medical officer of the institution where the death occurred, a pathologist who performed an autopsy on the deceased, or, in specific hospice situations, a registered nurse. Alternates work under the same three-business-day deadline and the same electronic-filing requirement.2Code of Arkansas Rules. 17 CAR 140-2801 – Requirements of Licensed Physicians in Completing Death Certificates
Hospice Deaths
A registered nurse employed by the attending hospice may both pronounce death and complete the medical certification when the patient was terminally ill, the death was anticipated, and the patient was receiving services from a certified hospice program. This works for deaths in a hospice inpatient facility, a nursing home, or a hospital.1Justia. Arkansas Code 20-18-601 – Registration Generally
When a hospice patient dies at home, the nurse can still pronounce death, but the coroner and the chief law enforcement official of the county or municipality where the death occurred must be immediately notified. That requirement applies even when the death was fully expected.
When the Coroner Gets Involved
Certain deaths require prompt notification to the county coroner, the prosecuting attorney, and either the county sheriff or the local police chief. Anyone with knowledge of the death, including physicians, law enforcement officers, funeral directors, and family members, has a duty to notify.3Justia. Arkansas Code 12-12-315 – Notification of Certain Deaths
The categories are broad:
- Violent, suspicious, or accidental deaths, including homicides and suicides
- Deaths where drugs or poisons appear to be present in the body
- Motor vehicle accidents, including a body found near a roadway or railroad without obvious trauma
- Fire, explosion, or drowning
- Deaths of anyone under 18, or any death suggesting child abuse
- Deaths in jails, police custody, or state mental institutions without a prior medical explanation
- Workplace deaths
- Sudden or unexplained deaths, or any death that appears to be something other than natural
- Deaths where no physician attended the patient within 36 hours before death, or within 30 days for a previously diagnosed terminal or bedfast patient
- Deaths at home
- Decomposed or unidentified remains
- Deaths involving a public health threat, which the coroner must report to the Department of Health
Coroner involvement does not imply foul play; it is a statutory checkpoint. While the investigation is open, the three-business-day certification deadline is paused.1Justia. Arkansas Code 20-18-601 – Registration Generally
Special Location and Date Rules
When someone dies in a moving vehicle, such as during an ambulance transport, and the body is first removed from the vehicle in Arkansas, the state registers the death regardless of where it actually occurred.
If the place of death is unknown but the body is found in Arkansas, the location of discovery becomes the official place of death on the certificate. If the date cannot be determined, the certifier uses the best available estimate; if no estimate is possible, the date the body was found is recorded instead.
Fixing Errors After Filing
New information, such as autopsy findings that change the cause or manner of death, is added through a supplemental report filed by the certifier with the Division of Vital Records. Updating the record as information develops is required, not optional.
Clerical errors go through the Division as well. Mistakes in the medical certification are corrected by the certifier; mistakes in the personal information section are corrected by the funeral director who originally filed the certificate. If you spot an error, start with the funeral home. They can route the correction to the right person and handle the Division’s submission process.
Ordering Certified Copies
Once the certificate is registered, most families need several certified copies for banks, insurance carriers, courts, and government agencies. A certified copy costs $10 for the first copy and $8 for each additional copy ordered at the same time.4Arkansas Department of Health. Order Death Records Ordering five or six at once is common and cheaper than going back later.
Mail orders go to the Arkansas Department of Health, Vital Records, Slot 44, 4815 West Markham Street, Little Rock, AR 72205. The office is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., excluding state holidays, and the phone number is (866) 209-9482. Online orders go through VitalChek, the Division’s authorized vendor, which adds a processing fee on top of the state cost.4Arkansas Department of Health. Order Death Records
Access is limited to eligible applicants, generally immediate family, legal representatives of the estate, and others with a documented legal need. You will need identification and proof of your relationship to the deceased.
Penalties for Falsifying or Failing to File
Arkansas splits penalties into two tiers.5Justia. Arkansas Code 20-18-105 – Penalties Deliberately falsifying a death certificate, forging or altering a vital record, or knowingly using a fraudulent certificate carries a fine of up to $10,000, up to five years in prison, or both. The same penalty applies to possessing a certificate known to be stolen or unlawfully obtained, and to any Division employee who knowingly processes a fraudulent document.
The lesser tier covers refusing to provide required information, transporting or accepting a body for burial without the required permit, or otherwise failing to carry out a duty imposed by the vital records chapter. Those violations carry a fine of up to $1,000, up to one year in prison, or both.5Justia. Arkansas Code 20-18-105 – Penalties