"From what I heard, the condominium association has disclosed it only has about $30 million in property insurance and another $18 million in liability insurance, and then you're going to be reliant on whatever the insurance limits are for any of the private inspectors that walk through the condominium," Conte said. "There's not going to be an unlimited pool of money. It's hard to see there being hundreds of millions of dollars out there for these people. I just don't think there's going to be."

On Wednesday, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman approved the process to start the sale of the property where the Champlain Towers South once stood. The money from the sale is intended to benefit victims of the deadly disaster, and court records indicate it could sell for $100 million to $110 million.

But complicating matters, Conte said, will be the sheer number of victims likely to be seeking compensation. As of Monday morning, 97 bodies had been recovered and about a dozen more remained unaccounted for.

"If you just do the math, it's hard to understand how there's going to be enough money to compensate those people, and I feel bad for them," Conte said.

Of all the parties involved, Conte said he believes it will be easiest to achieve a recovery against private inspectors who reviewed or inspected the building in the last five to 10 years and did not sufficiently warn of deficiencies and any building managers who were warned of deficiencies and failed to act.

But it could be harder to pin down other defendants, according to Conte.

"Although there is clear negligence here — if not gross negligence — architects, engineers, contractors, etc. involved in the original construction will have a time limit statutory defense under Florida law that must be overcome," Conte said. "Additionally, government inspectors and officials who potentially dropped the ball could be shielded by sovereign immunity defense."

Because technical defenses could hinder a plaintiffs' ability to get fair compensation in a civil proceeding, Conte said it will take "creative lawyering to maximize recoveries."

"It's important for the victims and their families to hire their own counsel. I've noticed that class actions are starting to pop up and, a lot of times, it's only the lawyers who benefit from class actions," Conte said. "So I would encourage the victims to hire their own attorneys, pursue their own claims or individual claims aggressively — both the wrongful death claims and the property damage claims — because that's how you're going to maximize recovery and you're going to have your own attorney focus on your own unique issues."

The latest suit

Debi Chalik represents Josephina Henriquez, pending personal representative for the estate of Ana Ortiz — a 46-year-old mother who lived in unit 702 with her husband, 55-year-old Frank Kleiman, and her son 26-year-old Luis Andres Bermundez, both of whom also died in the collapse.

The lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, levies negligence and gross negligence claims against the Champlain Tower South Condominium Association, property manager Scott Stewart and Morabito Consultants, the engineering firm retained by the association.

The suit claims the defendants conducted themselves with total disregard to an October 2018 engineering report highlighting structural issues in need of repair.

In the October 2018 report, Morabito Consultants noted that the waterproofing below the pool deck, entrance drive, and planter waterproofing was "beyond its useful life and therefore must all be completely removed and replaced."

Pro bono opportunities?

Personal injury attorney Michael Haggard of The Haggard Law Firm in Coral Gables agrees it will be hard to find the compensation victims deserve but said he hopes the attorneys involved can work pro bono and keep costs down.

"They can all hire one engineering expert. They can all hire one construction expert so their costs will be very minimal, so they can share amongst so many people," Haggard said. "There's not going to be a lot of risk for the plantiffs lawyer."

The biggest issue will be insurance, according to Haggard.

"You have people going to sleep at night, having this happen [through] no fault of their own at all and there's nothing they did wrong, and somebody else violated the most basic standards in the world," Haggard said. "How do you compensate them if you have limited insurance?"

In Florida, plaintiffs have four years to file a personal injury claim, but two years to file a wrongful death claim.

"That's usually survivors, it can be parents, so any of those types of what we call lineal descendants can bring those wrongful death claims. The people who are injured who thank God survived, can bring personal injury claims," said Haggard.

Haggard said he hopes organizations such as The American Board of Trial Advocates and The Miami-Dade Trial Lawyers Association can help families with free services.

"When 9/11 happened, we formed an organization called Trial Lawyers Care, and we represented all those victims pro bono," Haggard said. "Now, they also had options to do something else to get a lawyer, but we did that, and hopefully, those organizations get involved."

Read the complaint