On December 21, 2015 the Sun Sentinel Newspaper, Palm Beach County edition, published an article titled “Palm Beach County hits list for high cremation fee.” The article starts out with the following:

  “The only two certainties in life – death and taxes – are proving to be quite a windfall for county governments in Florida.”

  The article then goes on to provide the following points:

1.      The number of consumers selecting cremation in Florida is nearly two out of three;

2.      County Governments in Florida have increased cremations fees from about $20 charged by a few counties until today when 48 County Governments are charging fees that are as high as $63;

3.      The fee is intended to pay for medical examiners to review medical records before a cremation occurs. Medical examiners claim they have caught errors that otherwise would not be correctable because of the finality of cremation;

4.      Opponents of the fee claim that the records are now filed by Medical Examiners in electronic format at little cost;

5.      A member of the Florida State Legislature (a licensed funeral director) has introduced legislation to bar counties from charging any fee for cremations on the basis the fee is really a death fee and unfair to consumers. The legislation has already been approved by a Committee and will be considered by the Legislature when its session starts on January 12, 2016;

6.      The legislation is opposed by the Florida Association of Counties. It also it is opposed by some Funeral Directors who feel it will affect their relationship with Medical Examiners;

7.      Miami has the highest fee of $63. The Miami Medical Examiner argues the fee is necessary to cover the cost for the extensive review of forms filed by Doctors that erroneously state the cause of death or do not provide the information at all.

  The author did not research whether there were similar cremation fees in other states but he suspects that it is a typical fee. This obviously will be a continuing issue in the Florida State Legislature and the author will monitor it.

  This article is for the information of subscribers and does not constitute legal advice about this subject. All subscribers should accordingly consult with their own attorney to make sure they are in compliance with the laws in their state when dealing with an incident.