By Ben Kingsley


Vital statistics are essential as these contain important details with regards to a particular person and can be useful in everyday transaction. Vital records include birth, death, marriage and divorce decrees. Birth records are important, as they are needed in the performance of daily activities such as enrolling a child in school or proving one's eligibility. Florida death notices or death records on the other hand are usually useful for claiming benefits, closing real estate properties as well as being aware of medical problems in the future.

For those who are looking for death records, the Bureau's Office includes records that date from 1917 up to the present. As statewide registration is not yet completed before the said year, as recording of birth, death and other vital records were not required. The Office though has limited records of death from 1877 that one can access. Anyone can request for a copy of death records in Florida. However, due to some restrictions imposed by the law, the cause of death of the person is held in confidentiality and only those that are related to the deceased are allowed access. The cause of death is held in confidentiality for up to 50 years. After that, it becomes a public record, and can be accessed by anyone.

To request for a death certificate, one should first determine if he or she is eligible to purchase the certificate. Certificates without cause of death are accessible by anyone. Individuals who are related to the decedent, persons who have a will, though can only access a certificate with the cause of death and any person that maybe authorized to act in behalf of the people mentioned. Once one determines their eligibility, they can request the Office for the death certificate.

Each certificate costs $5 and the person requesting the certificate can request for additional copies with each copy costing $4. For those who are not sure of the exact date of death, they can add a year or two to the search for $2 per year. One can add as many years as they want and the maximum fee is $50 regardless of how many the years one may have requested for research. One should keep in mind that fees are not refundable and only fees for additional copies are returned by the Office. If the Office finds no records, they will issue a Certificate of No Public Records and will send it to the person requesting the information. Rush and express delivery are available with each costing $10 on top of the service fee. For express delivery, the Office requires the person requesting to include pre-paid express delivery envelope. Payments can be made via money orders or checks. For those in-person requests, credit cards and cash payments are allowed.

Each certified copy costs about $5 and additional copies cost $4. For those who are not sure of the exact date the person died, they can also request to have a search done. Each year added to the request will cost about $2 up to $50 max. Fees are not refundable and in cases where the Office fails to retrieve any details or find no records, the Office will issue a Certificate of No Public Records. While fees are not refundable, those who requested for additional copies will have the cost of the additional copies refunded. Processing time from the Office will take about two to three weeks depending on when the deceased died. Those who request for rush deliveries will have to pay additional $10 for the shipping. Express delivery is also available and payment is $10. For express delivery, the person requesting the information should include a prepaid express delivery envelope together with their request. Payments in the form of money order and checks are accepted. For walk ins, cash, credit card, checks and money orders are allowed. For those who want to receive a copy of the death record faster, many commercial vendors or sites offer public record searches for free or for a minimal fee.




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