Legal Business

Hillsborough inquest: Birnberg Peirce and other firms take home £63m as government foots legal bill

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The Home Office has spent £63.6m on the legal costs for the families of the 96 victims of the 1989 Hillsborough Football Stadium disaster, with London human rights firm Birnberg Peirce and Partners taking the lion’s share of fees.

Documents released by the government showed a breakdown of fees of lawyers representing the victims’ families between December 2012 and June 2016. Birnberg received the largest sum of £34.2m for representing 74 families.

Liverpool and Manchester firm Broudie Jackson Canter was paid £19.8m for representing 20 families since 2013. Leeds-based Harrison Bundy received £2.87m for representing three families.

Human rights firm Bindmans, which represented one family, was paid £2.85m. Four others– Butcher & Barlow, Merrill Corp, DTI Global and EAD Solicitors – received the remaining £3.6m.

The total legal cost of the inquests into the tragedy is thought to have topped £100m, according to The Times.

These costs include £20m paid by the Home Office to cover costs for South Yorkshire Police Force on its legal representation of its former chief constable and eight former officers and an estimated £20m to the cost of running the two-year inquest.

After hearing two years of evidence, jurors found former Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield had been ‘responsible for manslaughter by gross negligence due to a breach of his duty of care’ when the inquest closed in April this year.

Binberg’s nine-lawyer team at the inquest was led by Marcia Willis Stewart, Mishka Nelson and Rory Hearty. The group were led by a team of 24 barristers, including Michael Mansfield QC of Mansfield Chambers and Garden Court Chambers’ Peter Wilcock QC.

Six lawyers acted as counsel to the inquest, led by One Crown Office Row’s Christina Lambert and 4 New Square’s Jonathan Hough. Fieldfisher partner Tim Suter acted as solicitor to the inquest.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

 

Legal Business

Hillsborough inquest: Birnberg Peirce wins for families as Crown mulls criminal charges

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Birnberg Peirce & Partners, a law firm which provides representation to families whose loved ones have died in controversial circumstances involving the state, has led almost 20 different law firms in an inquest into the deaths arising from the Hillsborough Stadium Football disaster.

After hearing two years of evidence, jurors found that the then match commander Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield of the South Yorkshire police was ‘responsible for manslaughter by gross negligence due to a breach of his duty of care’. Thousands were injured and 96 football fans died after the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

The inquest was heard before retired judge Sir John Goldring who was the senior presiding judge of England and Wales from January 2010 until December 2012.

Birnberg, which represented 74 families, put forward a team of nine, including Marcia Willis Stewart, Mishka Nelson and Rory Hearty. The group was led by 24 barristers, including Michael Mansfield QC of Mansfield Chambers and Garden Court Chambers’ Peter Wilcock QC.

Broudie Jackson Canter, EAD and Butcher Barlow represented a further 21 families with the help of Garden Court North Chambers’ Pete Weatherby QC and Mark George QC.

A group of six acted as counsel to the inquests, led by One Crown Office Row’s Christina Lambert and 4 New Square’s Jonathan Hough. Fieldfisher partner Tim Suter acted as solicitor to the inquest.

Both the chief constable of the South Yorkshire police and the West Midlands police were represented by internal solicitors, with 5 Essex Court’s Fiona Bar QC and Jeremy Johnson acting as counsel respectively.

The Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) internal lawyers represented the director of public prosecutions.

Sue Hemming, head of the special crime and counter terrorism division at the CPS said: ‘The CPS will formally consider whether any criminal charges should be brought against any individual or corporate body based upon all the available evidence, in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.’

She added: ‘We would ask that everyone is mindful of the continuing investigations and the potential for future criminal proceedings when reporting or publicly commenting on the inquest’s conclusions.’

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk