Last year's national asbestos litigation landscape didn't show any drastic changes in overall filings. The numbers remained stable with a high concentration of cases filed by the top plaintiff firms within the top jurisdictions against the same defendants, according to the annual findings of KCIC, a Washington-based technology and consulting firm that analyzes approximately 90 percent of all asbestos cases filed nationwide.
KCIC's report released March 31 shows that Madison and St. Clair counties were the top two jurisdictions in the nation. Madison County, which has long been the epicenter for asbestos litigation, had a slight 5 percent increase over 2018 - from 1,095 to 1,150, but St. Clair County filings jumped a whopping 35 percent - from 266 in 2018 to 359 filings last year.
Madison County hosts the greatest number of mesothelioma cases of any jurisdiction - 1,002 or 87 percent of all its asbestos cases, while St. Clair County hosts the greatest number of lung cancer cases of any jurisdiction - 351 or 98 percent of all its asbestos cases.
The top plaintiff firm continues to be Edwardsville-based Gori Law Firm, which has held the number one ranking since at least 2016. It increased filings by approximately 10 percent over 2018, from 573 to 629. Firm founder Randy Gori was murdered at his rural Edwardsville home on the evening of Jan. 4.
After the Gori Firm, others on the top 15 list are Alton based Simmons Hanly Conroy, Weitz & Luxenberg of New York, Maune Raichle of St. Louis, SWMW Law of St. Louis, Goldberg Persky & White of Pittsburgh, Law Offices of Peter Angelos of Baltimore, Cooney & Conway of Chicago, Belluck & Fox of New York, Karste & von Oiste of Spring, Texas, Nass Cancelliere of Philadelphia, Shrader & Associates of Glen Carbon, Mazur & Kittle of Farmington Hills, Mich., Brookman Rosenberg Brown & Sandler of Philadelphia and Brayton Purcell of Novato, Calif.
The report notes that Karst & von Oiste made the biggest leap year over year by 64 percent - from 33 filings in 2018 to 54 last year. Nass Cancelliere filed 47 percent more than in 2018 and SWMW Law, which has been increasing its presence in Madison County, had 33 percent more filings than in 2018.
As for SWMW, the report states that it increased its mesothelioma filings in Madison County in 2019 by 48 percent, and also filed more than three times as many mesothelioma cases last year (over 2018) in St. Louis - ranked the fifth top asbestos jurisdiction. SWMW also increased its lung cancer filings by 14 percent last year - most of which were filed in Madison County.
On notable decreases, KCIC reports that Law Offices of Peter Angelos - ranked seventh in 2019 and fourth in 2018, Cooney & Conway - ranked eighth in 2019 and sixth in 2018 and Belluck & Fox - ranked ninth in 2018 and 2019 - all saw significant decreases.
Angelos's firm filed 54 percent fewer suits in 2019 than in the prior year, the report states. It noted that the Angelos firm decreased its non-malignant filings in Baltimore City "significantly" and all but stopped filing in any other court it had previously filed.
Belluck & Fox saw a 36 percent decrease; Cooney & Conway decreased by 31 percent, the report states.
While the Gori Firm files the most cases overall, the Simmons firm filed the most mesothelioma cases last year - 437. In fact the Simmons firm increased its mesothelioma caseload in 2019 by 16.5 percent, the report states..
Maune Raichle had the second most mesothelioma claims in the nation - 273, having increased only 1.1 percent over the prior year.
The Gori Firm filed 13.4 percent fewer mesothelioma claims in 2019 over the prior year - 251, but still filed the third most of any plaintiff firm.