Miami condo collapse: victims and families to receive $1.02bn settlement

Judge gives approval to settlement a day before one-year anniversary of disaster in Florida that killed 98 people

A judge has given final approval to a settlement topping $1bn for victims of the collapse of a Florida beachfront condominium building that killed 98 people, one of the deadliest building failures in US history.

The decision by Miami-Dade circuit Judge Michael Hanzman came a day before the one-year anniversary of the Champlain Towers South disaster in the Miami suburb of Surfside. The judge praised the dozens of lawyers involved for averting what could have been years of litigation with no sure outcome.