(a) The director of the division is authorized and directed to cooperate with and assist the peace officers in charge, medical examiners, and coroners of the state in making the facilities of the division available for the performing of medical examiners' inquiries on dead bodies as required by this article.

(b) The county governing authority shall after consulting with the coroner, if any, be authorized to appoint one or more local medical examiners who shall be licensed physicians or pathologists. The chief medical examiner may, at the request of a county governing authority, authorize one or more licensed physicians or pathologists at convenient locations throughout the state to act as local medical examiners in performing medical examiners' inquiries as required by this article. The chief medical examiner shall confer with local county officials in making appointments of regional and local medical examiners. Any regional or local medical examiner appointed by the chief medical examiner shall have such jurisdiction within this state as designated by the chief medical examiner.

(c) Except as otherwise provided in this article, it shall be in the sole discretion of the medical examiner to determine whether or not an autopsy or limited dissection is required; provided, however, that the medical examiner shall give due consideration to the opinions of the coroner and the peace officer in charge regarding the requirements of accepted investigation techniques and the rules of evidence applicable thereto.

(d) In the event that any local medical examiner or regional medical examiner is unable or unwilling to serve in any case, the coroner or the peace officer in charge may call upon the chief medical examiner, who shall perform a medical examiner's inquiry or direct another medical examiner to perform such inquiry.

(e) For each external examination so performed, in cases where limited dissection or autopsy of the body is not required, the medical examiner shall receive the fee set in accordance with the provisions of Code Section 35-3-151. The fee in each case is to be paid from funds of the county in which the act was committed; or, if the county in which the act was committed is unknown, the fee shall be paid from funds of the county in which the body was found. In the event the place in which the act was committed is not known but is later established, the county in which the act was committed shall be responsible for payment of fees incurred by the medical examiner. Subject to funds being appropriated or otherwise available for such purpose, the chief medical examiner shall provide transportation of the deceased person to the site of the autopsy, if such autopsy is to be performed by a state or regional medical examiner employed by the state, and to return the body to the county where the death occurred.

(f) When death occurs in a hospital as a direct result and consequence of acts or events taking place in a county other than the one in which such death occurs, the body shall be returned to the county in which such acts or events took place. When a dead body is found in a county in which the acts or events leading to death did not occur, it shall be returned to the county in which the acts or events did occur, if known. The coroner or local medical examiner of the county in which such acts or events took place shall assume jurisdiction and the medical examiner's inquiry, if any performed, shall be paid for from funds of the county in which such acts or events took place.

(f.1) When death occurs in a hospital as a direct result and consequence of acts or events taking place in a county other than the one in which such death occurs, the hospital shall immediately notify the coroner or the county medical examiner of the county in which the acts or events resulting in the death occurred.

(g) In the event that a medical examiner's inquiry is performed by the chief medical examiner or an employee thereof, no fee therefor shall be imposed pursuant to this Code section. In the event that a medical examiner's inquiry is performed by a medical examiner regularly employed at a fixed compensation by any county or group of counties, no fee shall be imposed upon any county or group of counties employing that medical examiner at a fixed compensation.

(h) Any person holding office as a medical examiner pursuant to an appointment of the state medical examiner on May 1, 1997, shall continue in the exercise of his or her functions and duties until such person's successor has been duly appointed.