St. Clair County has continued its rapid ascent to becoming perhaps the premier U.S. court destination of choice for plaintiffs’ lawyers seeking to hammer businesses with asbestos-related lawsuits and now rivals neighboring Madison County for the title of the nation’s asbestos litigation capitol, according to a new report.
National technology and management consulting company KCIC released its annual report tracking asbestos lawsuit activity in courts across the U.S. The new report tracked data for lawsuits filed in 2024.
According to the report, the total number of asbestos lawsuits filed nationwide remained mostly constant last year compared to recent years, with 3,931 lawsuits filed in 2024. That marked a 0.1 percent increase from 2023, when KCIC reported 3,929 asbestos lawsuits were filed in all U.S. courts.
However, the number marked a continuous climb back toward the latter years of the 2010s, just before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019, for instance, plaintiffs’ lawyers filed 4,143 asbestos-related claims in U.S. courts, KCIC reported.
And as in years past, Illinois courts – and particularly courts in Madison and St. Clair counties – remained the epicenter of the country’s asbestos litigation.
According to KCIC data, Illinois’ three major asbestos lawsuit destinations – Madison, St. Clair and Cook counties – logged a combined 1,878 asbestos lawsuits in 2024.
That number was up about 8% from 2023, when the three counties collectively received 1,736 new asbestos complaint filings.
All told, the three Illinois courts combined to account for nearly half of all asbestos-related lawsuits filed in the U.S. last year, KCIC reported.
However, the primary driver of the increase came from St. Clair County. According to KCIC data, St. Clair County recorded 820 new asbestos lawsuits in 2024. That marked a 22% increase in St. Clair County from the year prior, when St. Clair logged 672 filings, and a 53% jump when compared to the 536 lawsuits plaintiffs’ lawyers landed in St. Clair in 2022.
At the same time, filings in Madison County continued to decline. In 2022, plaintiffs’ lawyers pushed 979 lawsuits in Madison County courts. In 2023, that number dropped to 909 new filings. And last year, Madison filings dropped another 3% to just 882 filings.
While Madison County courts retained its dubious title as the top court system destination for asbestos lawsuits in 2024, should the trends continue, in 2025, St. Clair County could equal or eclipse its neighbor and become the nation’s premier asbestos litigation hotspot.
Nationally, Cook County ranked fifth among court systems receiving asbestos lawsuits in 2024, as the Chicago-based court took in 176 filings last year vs 155 in 2023, a 13.5% increase. Two years ago, Cook County logged 111 asbestos lawsuits.
Rounding out the Top 5 asbestos destinations were courts in New York and Philadelphia, which ranked third and fourth, respectively. Plaintiffs’ lawyers filed 317 asbestos-related claims in New York in 2024. Philadelphia took in 267 claims.
According to KCIC, claims for illness and death caused by the cancer known as mesothelioma remained the top driver of asbetos litigation, continuing to account for 49% of all asbestos lawsuits in 2024.
However, total mesothelioma claims decreased by 2 percent, KCIC reported.
In its place, litigation has increasingly focused on claims related to lung cancer or illness resulting from alleged exposure to talc, KCIC said.
Talc exposure, in particular, “has brought a number of new defendants into the litigation and led to several highly publicized verdicts,” KCIC said in its report.
In 2024, KCIC reported talc filings accounted for 751 asbestos-related lawsuits, or 19% of the total nationwide. And that number only continues to grow.
In 2023, for instance, plaintiffs’ lawyers filed 637 talc exposure claims, up from 454 in 2022 and just 345 in 2021, a 117% increased in three years.
Madison and St. Clair counties also took in the bulk of the talc-related lawsuits, as well. In 2024, Madison County logged 236 talc claims, while St. Clair County received an additional 47 talc lawsuits.
Collectively, Madison and St. Clair took in 38% of all talc lawsuits in the U.S., according to KCIC’s report.
As for asbestos-related lung cancer claims, St. Clair County remained the nation’s preeminent destination, logging 762 such claims in 2024. That was up from 657 filings in 2023, KCIC said.
The Gori Law Firm in Edwardsville continued to retain its ranking as the law firm responsible for the most asbestos lawsuit filings last year.
According to the report, Gori filed 788 lawsuits in 2024. While Gori’s number was down about 6% compared to the 837 lawsuits the firm filed in 2023, the Gori firm remained far ahead of the 393 lawsuits filed in 2024 by the nxt highest firm, Simmons Hanly Conroy, of Alton.
Rounding out the Top 5 busiest asbestos lawsuit filing firms last year were the firms of Weitz & Luxenberg, of New York (327 lawsuits); Maune Raichle Hartley French & Mudd, of St. Louis (303 lawsuits); and SWMW Law, of St. Louis (191 lawsuits.)
Among the Top 15 asbestos lawsuit filing firms, The Halpern Law Firm, of Pennsylvania, logged the largest percentage increase, jumping 87.5% in 2024 with 90 filings vs 48 in 2023.
This article was first published in Cook County Record.
