Five reasons to run an Australian Death Check search on your next matter

Alexandra Christopher
October 14, 2026

Legal practitioners across every field depend on the status of the people named in a matter yet confirming whether someone is living or deceased has often relied on a certificate supplied by another party rather than an authoritative record. InfoTrack now offers direct access to the Australian Death Check, the only official source of national death data for Australia, allowing practitioners to verify deceased records without leaving the platform.

What is an Australian Death Check search?

An Australian Death Check search confirms whether a person is registered as deceased on the national database and validates that the details on a death certificate are held in that database. The register is a joint initiative of the state and territory registries, spans more than three million records from the year 2000 onwards, and updates daily. As an approved data service broker, InfoTrack connects you to it directly.

1. Confirm beneficiaries are living before probate is sought

Estate lawyers must be satisfied that each beneficiary is living before submitting probate or distributing an estate. A death check search provides an official record to rely on, which supports a thorough and defensible administration and reduces the risk of costly oversights.

2. Verify the parties to a property transaction

Property lawyers and conveyancers can confirm whether a proprietor, vendor or transferor is registered as deceased before a transaction progresses, which helps ensure that time and cost are committed only to matters that can proceed as instructed.

3. Support accurate disclosure in family law matters

Family law practitioners work under considerable emotional pressure, and the status of a party or a related person can materially affect how a matter proceeds. A search allows a death certificate produced in proceedings to be validated against the national database, so that disclosure and settlement steps rest on verified information.

4. Complete due diligence in litigation, commercial and accounting work

Litigators, commercial practitioners and accountants can confirm that an individual is not registered as deceased before issuing proceedings, serving documents or relying on a statement of identity, which is a sensible step within professional due diligence.

5. Reduce identity fraud on every matter

The Australian Death Check helps identify situations where someone impersonates a deceased person or presents a false death certificate. Because the search sits within the InfoTrack platform, it can be run alongside your other searches and verification steps without leaving your workflow.

A death check search is a small but critical addition to a matter workflow that provides an official, daily-updated record of a fact practitioners have previously had to take on trust. To see how the Australian Death Check fits your practice, book a demonstration with InfoTrack.