The coroner's recommendation: fulfilling its potential? A perspective from the Aboriginal legal service [NSW/ACT]

Coroners Acts in New South Wales (‘NSW’) and the Australian Capital Territory (‘ACT’) confer on coroners jurisdiction to conduct inquests into certain kinds of death. As the outcome of a hearing, a coroner is tasked by their legislation to reach and record prescribed findings relating to the deceased, their death, and its manner and cause. These determinations enable that death to be registered under the relevant Birth, Deaths and Marriages legislation. If, though, this information can be established from preliminary investigations, a coroner has the discretion to dispense with an inquest hearing, unless the death investigated is of a category for which the legislation specifically requires one to be held. One such category is the death of a person in custody.