The first question an Alabama clerk settles is how long ago the person died. The Department of Public Health death certificate page explains that state law treats a death certificate as a confidential record with restricted access for 25 years from the date of death. Inside that window only a listed relative, the informant on the certificate or a legal representative of the family or estate can buy a certified copy, and each of them has to show identification. Once 25 years have passed, the certificate may be obtained by anyone upon payment of the proper fee, which turns an old family loss into an ordinary public document that a genealogist, a title company or a journalist can order with no relationship at all.
The second thing to know is that the Center for Health Statistics, which began filing death certificates in 1908, is not the only counter. Every county health department in Alabama can issue a certified copy of a state death certificate, and the department says most of them can be printed while the applicant waits, which makes the county office the fastest route for a family settling an estate. Mail requests go to Montgomery, and online or telephone orders run through VitalChek, the vendor the department names, with its own service and UPS shipping charges on top of the state fee.
- 25 years: a death certificate is restricted for 25 years from the date of death, then available to anyone who pays the fee.
- $15 and $6: the search fee includes one certified copy or a Certificate of Failure to Find, and extra copies of the same record ordered together are $6 each.
- With or without cause: for deaths from 1991 on, the application lets you choose copies that show the cause of death and copies that leave it off.
- County counters: any county health department issues state death certificates, most of them while you wait.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Alabama's own systems: the Alabama Department of Public Health death certificates page, the Alabama vital record application, form ADPH-HS14, the department's identification requirements page, the department's death certificate corrections and changes page, the Alabama vital records home page, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Who can buy a certificate inside the 25 year window
For a death less than 25 years old, the department lists seven kinds of applicant. The mother or father of the person named on the certificate, the husband or wife, a son or daughter, a sister or brother, a grandchild who can demonstrate entitlement, the legal representative of the family or of the estate, and the informant who is listed on the certificate as the person who supplied the information. The informant category matters in practice: the friend or caregiver who gave the funeral home the facts is printed on the record and can order copies even without being related.
The application form restates the rule in the words of the statute. Code of Alabama section 22-9A-21 limits restricted records to an immediate family member or someone who can demonstrate a legal right to the record, and the applicant signs to certify that right. The same form carries the warning that anyone falsely applying for a record faces, on conviction, up to three months in the county jail or a fine of up to $500 under section 13A-10-109.
A grandchild, a niece or an executor who is not immediate family writes the reason for the request on the line the form provides and attaches the paper that proves the interest.
What the $15 buys, and when to pay more
The state application is one sheet for births, deaths, marriages and divorces, and it says the $15 fee covers a search of the files and one certified copy, or a Certificate of Failure to Find when the record is not located. Additional copies of the same record ordered at the same time cost $6 each, so a family that needs five certificates for banks, insurers and the Social Security Administration pays $39 in one order rather than $75 in five separate ones. Fees are not refundable, cash is not accepted by mail, and the check or money order is payable to the Center for Health Statistics.
An expedited request costs $15 on top of the regular fee. The form also prices the work that only the Montgomery office can do: $20 to amend a record or to file a delayed certificate, which includes one certified copy of the result, and $25 to prepare a new birth certificate after an adoption or legitimation. The department asks that two different types of certificate never be requested on the same form.
Copies with and without the cause of death
Alabama death certificates filed from 1991 onward can be issued in two versions, and the application has a box for each: the number of copies wanted with the cause of death and the number wanted without it. A bank or a pension plan usually needs only proof of the fact and date of death, while a life insurer may want the medical portion, so an applicant can order a mix in one request. The choice does not change the price, and it is not offered for deaths before 1991, which are issued as filed.
Identification for a restricted record
A restricted certificate, meaning a death less than 25 years old or a birth less than 125 years old, is released only after the applicant shows one primary identification or two secondary ones. The identification page accepts a primary document that is current or expired no more than 60 days: an Alabama or out of state driver license, a state non driver card, a United States or foreign passport, a naturalization or citizenship certificate, a military card, a tribal card, a pilot, boating or concealed weapons license, a school identification showing the current term, an Alabama voter identification card, or an inmate identification from the Department of Justice with papers from the institution.
Secondary documents come in pairs: an expired government identification, a utility bill under six months old, a vehicle registration or title, a property tax bill, a DD Form 214, a voter registration card, a health insurance card, Social Security correspondence, a fishing or hunting license, a police report in a stolen identification case, an immunization record and several others. When someone else picks up a restricted certificate for the applicant, both the applicant and the designee must show acceptable identification, and the office keeps a copy of every document submitted along with the request.
Ordering by mail, at a county health department or through VitalChek
Mail requests go to the Center for Health Statistics, P.O. Box 5625, Montgomery, Alabama 36103-5625, with the completed form, a copy of the identification and the fee. The department asks for as much of the following as possible to find the entry: the full legal name of the deceased, the date and county or city of death, sex, Social Security number, date of birth or age at death, race, the names of the spouse and parents, plus the applicant's own name, signature, relationship, mailing address and daytime telephone number.
The application form can also be taken to any county health department, where the county registrar reviews the applicant's right to the record before it is printed.
Online and telephone orders are placed with VitalChek at 1-888-279-9888 using a major credit or debit card, and the department notes the additional fees for that service and for upgrading to UPS delivery. Questions about an order already paid by card go to VitalChek; everything else goes to the Center at (334) 206-5418, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Central Time. For a death that happened in another state the department points to the National Center for Health Statistics list of state offices rather than its own files.
Correcting a death certificate
The corrections page separates personal information from medical information. Personal and demographic facts such as a misspelled name or a wrong marital status are corrected through an amendment that the funeral home, the informant, an immediate family member on the record or someone with an appropriate legal interest can request. The original entry is never erased; the amendment takes the form of an affidavit attached to the certificate that lists the items corrected, and legal documents or a court action may be needed for some changes.
The amendment fee is $20 including one certified copy, with $6 for each extra copy and $15 to expedite, mailed to the Death Amendments unit at the same post office box.
The cause of death, the date and time of death, and the rest of the medical certification can be changed only by the medical certifier who signed the certificate, and there is no fee for the certifier to do it. A cause listed as pending is updated when the certifier files a Supplemental Medical Certification after the autopsy report arrives, usually through the Electronic Death Registration System. Families who believe the medical section is wrong therefore go back to the physician or coroner, not to the state office, and the Death Amendment Clerk at (334) 206-2641 can explain which route applies.
Apostilles, old deaths and other records
A certificate for use abroad is issued as an apostille or exemplified copy, which pairs the death certificate signed by the State Registrar with a certification from the Alabama Secretary of State; the department notes that certain restrictions apply to these copies for births and deaths. Because statewide filing began in 1908, a death before that year has no certificate in Montgomery, and the researcher has to work from county, church and cemetery sources instead.
Readers who need the birth side of the same office can use the Alabama birth certificates guide, and the Alabama public records law guide covers requests to other agencies.
Questions about Alabama death records
Related Alabama records
Alabama readers can continue with the Alabama birth certificates guide for the same Montgomery office, the Alabama public records law guide, and the Alabama county pages for every county health department and probate office.