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Hillsborough legal fees top £80m

Legal costs for the families at the inquests into the deaths of the 96 Hillsborough victims totalled £63.6m.

They were paid by the Home Office, which also spent nearly £20m on lawyers for the former chief constable of South Yorkshire Police and eight ex-officers.

Lawyers for the Hillsborough families received the same rates as for the police counsel, the BBC understands.

The inquests concluded in April that the fans were unlawfully killed in the 1989 disaster.

They died following a crush during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium.