Art. 49A.101 CREATION OF OFFICE REQUIRED IN CERTAIN COUNTIES; AUTHORITY TO ESTABLISH OFFICE

Counties with more than 2.5 million people must have a medical examiner's office. The county's governing body, called the commissioners court, is responsible for setting this up and keeping it running. This is not optional for large counties. Right now, this rule applies to the biggest counties in Texas, like Harris County.

Smaller counties get to choose. Their commissioners court can decide to create a medical examiner's office if they want one, but they are not required to. This gives smaller counties flexibility based on their needs and budget.

For people living in a large county, this means there will always be a medical examiner's office available to handle things like death investigations. In smaller counties, whether this office exists depends on local decisions, so services may look different from one county to another.