Impact de la note d'un procureur précisant les indications autopsiques : exemple de l'institut médicolégal de Montpellier

France is currently one of the European countries, with the lowest rate of judicial autopsies. Moreover autopsy rates still vary within the country despite the 2011 French forensic reform. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of the Montpellier city Prosecutor note, which precised indications within his jurisdiction on the IML activities. As part of this study, we have compared the prosecutor's recommendations with international policies. We have then reviewed the National Institute of Legal Medicine statistics from the past 5 years to evaluate how this note impacted on the number of autopsies (total number of autopsies and according to cause of death). A significant annual increase in autopsy (+17 %) has been seen since the release of this note, which mainly complies with international standards. The autopsies on individual who died from accidents, natural cause and suicides have increased by 30 %, 38 % and 74 % (24 ± 5 [SD] [P = 0.0372]), respectively, but prosecutor note is too recent (2 years) to draw definite conclusions but the trend is clearly towards an increase. For France to comply with the international standards, it would be beneficial to either apply a national legislation or extend the same local guidelines that have positioned Montpellier jurisdiction as the first French jurisdiction in 2015.