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Fundamentally, it should be a very simple test: If any interested party has legal representation paid for by the state, then the family should also have equivalent funding.

This should apply whether the state funded interested party is the Police, the MOD, the NHS, local council, etc...

The argument has of course always been that the family do not need lawyers for an inquest, because it is an inquiry and is not adversarial. That argument has always been questionable to say the least, given how complex many inquests are. The argument becomes untenable when the state is paying lawyers to attend on its behalf.