26:6B-7 Duties, functions, powers, responsibilities.

7. The Chief State Medical Examiner shall have the following general duties, functions, powers, and responsibilities:

a. The Chief State Medical Examiner shall have the authority to enforce the provisions of this act.

b. The Chief State Medical Examiner shall, to the best of his ability, ensure that the medical examiner system is adequately equipped and staffed to effectively deliver medicolegal death investigation services throughout the State, for which purpose the Chief State Medical Examiner shall:

(1) establish standards of funding for the operations and staffing of the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner;

(2) establish recommended standards of funding for the operations, staffing, capital equipment, laboratories, and facilities of the county and intercounty medical examiner offices;

(3) oversee the deployment of State funds designated for the medical examiner system;

(4) maintain and supervise the New Jersey State Medical Examiner Toxicology Laboratory as set forth in this act; and

(5) have the authority to apply for and accept funds, including grants and awarded federal appropriations, for the improvement of the system of medicolegal death investigation services.

c. The Chief State Medical Examiner shall:

(1) appoint such persons to the position of Deputy Chief State Medical Examiner, and such other employees, as may be needed for the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner to meet its responsibilities, and prescribe their duties;

(2) pursuant to the provisions of this act, provide advice concerning the appointment, by the governing body of a county or the governing bodies of two or more counties, of county or intercounty medical examiners, as applicable, to conduct medicolegal death investigations within the jurisdiction in which they may be appointed to serve;

(3) provide advice to the governing bodies of two or more counties seeking to maintain an intercounty medical examiner office, in accordance with the provisions of this act;

(4) establish minimum training and experiential requirements of eligibility for those persons appointed as Deputy Chief State Medical Examiner or as a county or intercounty medical examiner, in addition to the other qualifications set forth in this act;

(5) retain direct supervisory power over all operations and personnel employed by the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner;

(6) have direct supervision and oversight of any county or intercounty medical examiner facility that the Chief State Medical Examiner reasonably determines is experiencing problems that preclude its effective functioning, except that such direct supervision and oversight shall not be authorized in the case of a county or intercounty medical examiner facility that is accredited and subject to inspection by the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME);

(7) provide professional oversight concerning the operations of the county and intercounty medical examiner offices as they relate specifically to the conduct of medicolegal death investigations and the performance of autopsies;

(8) require county and intercounty medical examiners to timely enter case information into the Case Management System maintained by the Chief State Medical Examiner, and to complete any training offered by the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner on the proper use of the Case Management System; and

(9) establish a forensic pathology fellowship program that is designed to increase the pool of medical examiners in the State, and collaborate with, and encourage collaboration between, the State's educational institutions for the purposes of implementing the fellowship program.

d. The Chief State Medical Examiner, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), shall adopt rules and regulations as necessary to effectuate the provisions of this act, including, but not limited to, establishing:

(1) uniform procedures for conducting medicolegal death investigations as determined to be necessary to determine identity, cause of death, and manner of death, and to resolve any issues or potential issues of public health and legal concern;

(2) minimum performance and operating standards for the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner and each county or intercounty medical examiner office; and

(3) standards of professional conduct to be followed by the personnel of the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner and the personnel of county and intercounty medical examiner offices.

e. The Chief State Medical Examiner shall have direct supervision and oversight of any medical examiner facility operating under the jurisdiction of this State.

f. The Chief State Medical Examiner is authorized to intervene in, and to assume control over, any ongoing medicolegal death investigation taking place in the State, at any time and at his discretion, regardless of whether the Chief State Medical Examiner has received permission from, or a request for intervention by, the county or intercounty medical examiner performing the investigation.

g. The Chief State Medical Examiner is authorized to enter into agreements with the State Department of Health, the Attorney General, or any State-operated college or school of medicine, or any public hospital, for the use of certain of its laboratories, morgues, and other technical facilities, and space in its buildings as offices and laboratories for the Chief State Medical Examiner and his staff, and may make assistant medical examiners available to such educational institutions for the teaching of legal medicine and other subjects closely related to their duties.

L.2018, c.62, s.7.