Get a Death Certificate in Alpine County, CA
This service isn't handled by the County Clerk. Here's where to go instead.
This county’s own published figure: the page it is printed on ↗
This price is not the county's to choose. H&S § 103625(a) sets the fee at $12, § 103625(f) adds $5 to every certified copy, and Gov. Code § 27365 makes the recorder charge exactly what the registrar charges. § 54985(c)(6) takes both out of the board of supervisors' general power to set county fees. The counter price is higher than the code because H&S § 100430 adjusts it every year and CDPH publishes the result — $26.00 from 1 January 2026.
What may legitimately differ. A board with a county children's trust fund may add up to $3 to a birth certificate (§ 103625(b)(2)) — which is why about a third of California counties publish $34 rather than $31. Contra Costa (§ 103626), Alameda and the City of Berkeley (§ 103627) and Solano (§ 103628) each have their own domestic-violence surcharge, with an annual CPI escalator. That is the whole list.
Ordering online usually costs more than this. Counties take card orders through a payment vendor, and the vendor's processing charge sits on top of the statutory fee — Santa Clara's online birth certificate is $41 against a $34 counter price. The extra is not a county fee and is not part of what H&S § 103625 sets.
An authorizedcopy — the one that establishes identity — needs a statement sworn under penalty of perjury that you are an authorized person, notarized if you are not there in person (H&S § 103526(a)). Authorized persons are the registrant, a parent or guardian, a child, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse or domestic partner, an attorney or estate representative, someone with a court order, and law enforcement, plus the people entitled to control disposition under § 7100(a) and a funeral director acting for them. Everyone else may still buy an informational copy, which carries the same record under a legend reading “INFORMATIONAL, NOT A VALID DOCUMENT TO ESTABLISH IDENTITY” (§ 103526(b)).
Which office holds the record. H&S § 103525 lets the State Registrar, the local registrar or the county recorder issue a certified copy of a record registered with that official. So this office covers deaths registered in Alpine County. For an event in another county, or a very recent one your county has not yet forwarded, the county health department's local registrar or CDPH Vital Records is the office to ask.
In Alpine County the Recorder's Office issues certified birth and death certificates — not the County Clerk whose address this page carries, which is a separate office here. The Recorder's Office's own page ↗
Mail-in application — complete at home and mail with the fee.
⚠️ This office does not process death certificates. Use the agency linked above. The office below is your county's County Clerk — useful for other services.
Call or check the county website for the County Clerk's office address and hours.