Consists of the rules and principals that society has established for the handling and disposition of the dead.
Funeral Law
Criminal Law
Civil Law
Sources of United States Law
Part of the English law that is dervied from custom and judicial precedent rather than statutes or statutory law.
Common Law
Constitutional Law
Legislative Laws
State Statutes
Municipal Ordinances
Administrative Laws
Case Law
The Judicial Process
Administrative Procedure
MD State Board Procedure
Appeal Rights- Maryland State Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors
Sources of Mortuary Law
Why Follow Mortuary Law?
After undefined decomposition, the dead body ceases to be a dead body in the eyes of the law.
State v. Glass
Supreme Court analyzed what property rights one has in a dead body (1991).
Brotherton v. Cleveland
Quasi-Property (The Body)
Person who left a deceased person in the trunk of the car and then abandoned it. (Nebraska).
State v. Robinson
Criminal penalties for the failure to bury or incinerate a corpse within a reasonable tie after death have been applied to funeral directors.
Travis v. Daniels and People v. Ackley (New York)
Tristate scandal- Georgia
Death scene photographs of a public official were protected from disclosure under Freedom of Information Act (FIA).
National Archives and Records Administration v. Favish
Phelps-Roper v. Strickland (2008)