[Death certificate and diagnosis of violent death]

Many crimes go by unpunished, be it due to the disappearance of the cadaver, or a skillful cover-up on the part of the perpetrator. Thus, the crime can be masked as an accident, a suicide, or even a natural death. In France, the writing of the death certificate confers to the doctor, an important role in their unravelling. This role rests solely on a systematic approach consisting of alerting all violent deaths, sudden deaths and suspicious deaths to the coroner's office. The coroner decides whether to hold a medico-legal autopsy according to the various facts carried to his attention.