FACTBOX: The inquest into Princess Diana's death

(Reuters) - Princess Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed were unlawfully killed by the grossly negligent driving of chauffeur Henri Paul and paparazzi photographers pursuing their limousine into a Paris road tunnel in 1997.

The jury, which reached their majority decision on Monday, spent almost six months listening to more than 250 witnesses from around the world.

Few areas of the private life of the "People's Princess" were spared before Lord Justice Scott Baker, and a string of sensational allegations were explored in court.

The inquest into Diana's death in a Paris car crash cost $20 million.

Here are some facts about the inquest process:

-- Inquests are official inquiries held in England and Wales into deaths that appear violent, unnatural, of a sudden and unknown cause, or in some way suspicious.

An inquest seeks to determine who has died, and when, where and how their death came about. It cannot apportion blame or identify someone as having criminal liability.

-- Most inquests are held in front of a coroner, an independent judicial officer, sitting alone.

-- However, jury inquests are mandatory in a small number of cases, such as deaths in police custody, and can also be held at the discretion of the coroner. In 2006, only 570 out of a total of 29,300 inquests were held in front of a jury.

-- Inquests can reach only a limited number of verdicts, such as death by natural causes, an accident, unlawful killing, an open verdict -- where there is no clear cause of death -- and a narrative verdict, which gives a short, factual statement setting out the circumstances of the death.

-- The inquest into Princess Diana's death opened in January 2004, the first public hearings on British soil into the crash, but immediately adjourned on the instruction of the coroner to allow British police time to hold an investigation.

-- That investigation, which reported in December 2006, concluded there was no conspiracy to murder and it was a tragic accident.

-- After a three-year break, the inquest resumed in Britain in January 2007.

-- Four coroners have presided over the case. The third, Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, one of Britain's most senior former judges, stepped down last April after the High Court overruled her decision not to hold the inquest in front of a jury.

(Writing by Michael Holden; Additional writing by David Cutler, editing by David Clarke and Mary Gabriel)