Coroners Act 2003 (SA)

South Australia

Coroners Act 2003

An Act to provide for the appointment of the State Coroner and other coroners; to establish the Coroner's Court; and for other purposes.

The Parliament of South Australia enacts as follows:

This Act may be cited as the Coroners Act 2003.

1. (1)

   In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears—

anaesthetic means a local or general anaesthetic, and includes the administration of a sedative or analgesic;

body of a dead person means the whole, or any part, of the body (whatever its physical state may be);

coroner means—

1. (a)

   the State Coroner; or

2. (b)

   a Deputy State Coroner; or

3. (c)

   any other coroner appointed under Part 2;

Coroner's Court or Court means the Coroner's Court of South Australia;

corresponding authorisation, in relation to the body of a dead person, means an authorisation under a corresponding law by a coroner (within the meaning of that corresponding law) that corresponds to an authorisation—

1. (a)

   for the release of the body of the dead person from the control of the coroner; or

2. (b)

   for the disposal of human remains in respect of the body of the dead person;

corresponding law means—

1. (a)

   the Coroners Act 1997 (Australian Capital Territory);

2. (b)

   the Coroners Act 2009 (New South Wales);

3. (c)

   the Coroners Act 1993 (Northern Territory);

4. (d)

   the Coroners Act 2003 (Queensland);

5. (e)

   the Coroners Act 1995 (Tasmania);

6. (f)

   the Coroners Act 2008 (Victoria);

7. (g)

   the Coroners Act 1996 (Western Australia);

death in custody means the death of a person where there is reason to believe that the death occurred, or the cause of death, or a possible cause of death, arose, or may have arisen, while the person—

1. (a)

   was being detained in any place within the State under any Act or law, including any Act or law providing for home detention (and, for the purposes of this paragraph, a detainee who is absent from the place of his or her detention but is in the custody of an escort will be regarded as being in detention, but not otherwise); or

2. (b)

   was in the process of being apprehended or was being held—

   1. (i)

      at any place (whether within or outside the State)—by a person authorised to do so under any Act or law of the State; or

   2. (ii)

      at any place within the State—by a person authorised to do so under the law of any other jurisdiction; or

3. (c)

   was evading apprehension by a person referred to in paragraph (b); or

4. (d)

   was escaping or attempting to escape from any place or person referred to in paragraph (a) or (b);

Deputy State Coroner—see section 5;

investigator means—

1. (a)

   a police officer; or

2. (b)

   a person appointed under this Act to be an investigator;

legal practitioner has the same meaning as in the Legal Practitioners Act 1981;

medical practitioner means a person registered under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law to practise in the medical profession (other…