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Solicitors make millions from sick miners' claims

Beresfords, a tiny firm of solicitors in Doncaster, has received £123m from the taxpayer by winning compensation claims on behalf of coal miners for work-related diseases, new government figures show.

The head of the firm, Jim Beresford, had a personal salary of £16.7m in 2006 and two partners - one of whom was his daughter Esta - shared a further £3.7m between them last year.

The largesse ultimately came out of a high court victory by miners nearly 10 years ago when British Coal and the National Coal Board were found to be negligent with the health of their staff.