NewsNational

Actions

Building collapse lawsuits seek to get answers, assign blame

lawsuits.jpeg
Posted at 3:48 AM, Jul 06, 2021
and last updated 2021-07-06 07:02:14-04

The legal fallout from the deadly building collapse in Surfside, Florida, is already underway.

It includes at least five lawsuits and a planned grand jury investigation.

The litigation comes even as rescuers remain at the site hoping to find survivors. Twenty-eight people have been found dead and more than 117 residents are thought to still be missing.

Chapman University law professor Denis Binder studies wide-scale disasters and says they are increasingly leading to criminal negligence charges.

He believes the harrowing images people see in real-time through the media feed a need to seek answers about the tragedy and assess blame.