March 2023 trial set for Florida condo collapse lawsuits

By CURT ANDERSON
AP Legal Affairs Writer

A major lawsuit in the collapse of a Florida beachfront condominium that killed 98 people will go to trial in March 2023. That new deadline is about six months later than Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman had originally planned. But lawyers in the complex and unusual case said at a hearing Wednesday that experts need more time to evaluate what caused the 12-story building to fall in June 2021. The collapse of Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida, just north of Miami Beach was one of the worst building disasters in U.S. history. Federal and state agencies are investigating what happened.