Collapsing Decks

It seems that every summer we read about decks collapsing and people getting hurt. Just last week the Star Tribune reported a massive deck collapse in Forest Lake, with about 20 people involved, one of whom had to be hospitalized.

If you are the injured person and not the homeowner, what can you do? What are your options? Because a deck on a home is considered an "improvement to real property" there are some special rules you need to be aware of, the most important of which is that you only have TWO YEARS after the injury in which to sue (if that's necessary). Minnesota's usual 6 year statute of limitations typically won't apply. There's another problem, too, and that's the 10 year statute of repose, which means that if the deck was completed more than 10 years before you were hurt, you can't sue whoever built it, even if it's within 2 years (the architects and builders got that law passed).

There are always exceptions to rules, so the smart thing to do is to contact an experience personal injury attorney right away.