Inquests and Fatal Accident Inquiries

The Herald of 17 January 2008 has a lengthy article by Anne Johnstone about the circus that is the Diana and Dodi inquest. In the course of it, she refers as follows to the Fatal Accident Inquiry that took place after the destruction of Pan Am 103:

"It's easy to be smug, but it's hard to believe that this nonsense would have been allowed to unfold in Scotland. Fatal accident inquiries under a sheriff are the Scottish equivalent of the coroner's inquest. As well as covering deaths at work or in custody, they can be called by the Lord Advocate on the grounds that the death was sudden, suspicious, unexplained or gives rise to public concern. The biggest in recent years was for the Lockerbie disaster in which 270 people lost their lives. It took 61 days and cost £3m. In the Diana inquest that sum will barely cover security."

See
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/featuresopinon/display.var.1971389.0.The_show_that_makes_a_mockery_of_legal_process.php