The Bureau of Vital Statistics in Jacksonville issues every Florida death certificate in two forms. The first leaves out the cause of death and is a public record: any person aged eighteen or over may order it, and the first five digits of the decedent's Social Security number are blanked out. The second shows the cause of death and the full number, and for a death less than fifty years old it goes only to the spouse or a parent, an adult child, grandchild or sibling, someone holding a will, insurance policy or other paper that shows an interest in the estate, someone acting for one of those people, or a person with a court order. After fifty years the cause of death may go to any adult. The rules are on the Department of Health death certificates page.
One detail on the application form, DH727, saves people a wasted order: the Florida Clerk of Circuit Court will not accept a death record with the cause of death included when a probate case is filed. A family settling an estate usually needs the plain copy for the court and the full copy only for insurers or pension plans that ask for it. Offices for each county are listed on the Florida county pages.
- Five dollars: the state fee for the first certified copy by post or at the counter, with four dollars for each extra copy and a one dollar shipping charge.
- Fifty years: how long the cause of death stays restricted to family, estate claimants and their agents.
- 2009 is the line: deaths from 2009 on print as computer certificates in three to five business days, while older ones come as slower photocopy certificates.
- Probate takes the plain copy: the clerk of circuit court will not accept a certificate showing the cause of death for a probate filing.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Florida's own systems: the Florida Department of Health death certificates page, application form DH727 for a Florida death or fetal death certificate, the department's amendments and corrections page, the stillbirth certificate page, the fetal death certifications page, section 406.135 of the Florida Statutes on autopsy records, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Proving eligibility for the full copy
Anyone who wants the cause of death must send a copy of valid photo identification, and the application must state the qualifying relationship. A person who is not on the eligible list can still get the full copy if one of the eligible people signs a notarized Affidavit to Release Cause of Death Information, form DH 1959, and the request includes supporting papers and photo identification for both the signer and the applicant.
Funeral homes and attorneys must give their professional license number with the name of the client they represent and that client's relationship to the decedent. A funeral home that is not the funeral home of record, or that is not acting for an eligible person, needs the DH 1959 affidavit too.
The accepted identification is a driver license, a state identification card, a passport or a military identification card, and mail applicants copy both the front and the back. A foreign driver license, a foreign identification card, a consular card or a Matricula card is accepted only with two more documents, such as a vehicle title or registration, a health insurance card, an employment or school identification, a tax document, or mail showing the current address.
What the state charges
Ordered straight from the bureau, the first certified copy costs five dollars, which is also the search fee for one calendar year and is never refunded. Extra copies ordered at the same time cost four dollars each, whether or not they show the cause of death. If the exact year of death is unknown, each additional year searched costs two dollars, with fifty dollars as the most anyone pays for a span of years. Shipping and handling is one dollar per application.
A rush order costs ten dollars more and gets priority processing, though it does not buy faster delivery: everything goes by standard post unless the applicant encloses a prepaid express envelope. When no record turns up, the bureau issues a certified No Record Found statement, and the money paid for extra copies can be refunded on written request.
The online route through VitalChek, which the department calls its only contracted vendor and the only online seller it recommends, costs fifteen dollars for the first certificate because the bureau's ten dollar rush fee is built in, plus a seven dollar VitalChek processing fee and four dollars for each extra copy. UPS delivery costs extra and needs a signature, while regular mail costs nothing more. VitalChek takes phone orders at 877-550-7330, or 1-615-372-6800 from outside the United States. The bureau itself does not take credit cards by phone or by mail.
Counter, post or county office
The walk in lobby is at 1217 North Pearl Street in Jacksonville, open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and it takes cash, checks, money orders, Visa and Mastercard but not tap to pay. Postal orders go to Florida Department of Health, Vital Statistics, P.O. Box 210, Jacksonville, FL 32231-0042, with a check or money order made out to Vital Statistics and never cash. Overseas payers use a cashier's check or money order in United States dollars drawn on a United States bank, and Florida law adds a fifteen dollar charge for a bounced check.
A mailed request lists the full name on the death record, sex, date of death or the range of years to search, date of birth, the city or county of death and the Social Security number, plus the applicant's name, relationship, address, phone number and signature.
County health departments also take walk in and mail requests, but only for deaths from 2009 to the present, and their fees vary from county to county. For anything older the bureau in Jacksonville is the place to ask. The bureau answers questions at 904-359-6900.
Older deaths and the 2009 divide
Florida has some death records going back to 1877, but the department warns that only limited deaths were recorded between 1877 and 1917, so an empty search for that period does not mean the death never happened. Deaths from 2009 onward are issued as computer certificates, normally in three to five business days plus mailing time. Anything before 2009 is issued as a photocopy certificate made from the original and takes longer. At the Jacksonville counter, same day service for a pre-2009 record, when it is offered at all, requires the ten dollar rush fee.
Fixing a mistake on a death certificate
Errors in personal details, such as a misspelled name, a wrong date of birth or a wrong marital status, are corrected with form DH524 and the DH433 affidavit, following the DH670 instructions, and the bureau may ask for documents that prove the right entry. Florida law sets a twenty dollar amendment fee that is not refundable and includes one certified copy of the corrected record. The cause of death is handled differently: only the certifying physician or the medical examiner can change it, by filing the notarized DH434A affidavit.
A medical amendment carries no amendment fee, and certified copies of the corrected record cost the usual five dollars for the first and four for each extra one ordered at the same time.
Stillbirths and fetal deaths
A fetal death at twenty weeks of gestation or later must be registered in Florida. Any adult may get the non-confidential part of a fetal death record, but the cause of fetal death, the parentage, the marital status and the medical details stay confidential for one hundred and twenty five years and go only to the parents named on the record, siblings, or someone with a court order. Parents can also ask for a separate Certificate of Birth Resulting in Stillbirth, available for deliveries from 1947 on, which the state says is not proof of a live birth.
It is issued first to the parents, a legal representative or by court order, becomes public after that first issue, and cannot be had the same day.
Medical examiner and autopsy records
Deaths that come before a district medical examiner produce records that are not kept by the bureau, and section 406.135 of the Florida Statutes closes the most sensitive parts of them. Photographs and video or audio recordings of an autopsy are confidential, with access going first to the surviving spouse, then to the surviving parents, then to an adult child. The autopsy report of a minor whose death was tied to domestic violence is closed except to a surviving parent who did not commit the act, and the autopsy report in a suicide is closed except to the spouse, then the parents, then the adult children and siblings.
The relative with that right may name an agent in writing, and anyone else needs a court order granted for good cause.
Questions about Florida death records
Related Florida records
For the same Jacksonville bureau's birth records see the Florida birth certificates guide, for access to state and county files under chapter 119 see the Florida public records law guide, and for local offices see the Florida county pages.