Philadelphia Asbestos Filings Jumped 39.7% in 2025. New York Up 25%. St. Clair County Down 22%. The Map Is Being Redrawn.

KCIC, the consulting firm that processes about 90% of US asbestos filings, published its 2024 Year in Review and a 2025 mid-year update showing the asbestos litigation map being redrawn for the first time in a decade.

The headline number is straightforward. Total US asbestos lawsuits rose to 4,244 in 2025, up 5.8% from 2024. The growth is real but the surface story misses the structural shift underneath. Eastern coastal venues are absorbing the new growth. Illinois is consolidating. The plaintiff firm count keeps shrinking. People with mesothelioma and their families are filing in different courthouses than they were five years ago. The KCIC data shows where.

The Headline Number Conceals the Migration

KCIC’s annual data is the most complete national view of asbestos filings because the firm processes claims for many of the largest defendant companies. Approximately 90% of US asbestos filings flow through its processing systems. That makes the Year in Review the industry’s primary benchmark.

The 2024 baseline is straightforward. KCIC counted 4,012 filings nationally. Madison County Illinois led with 882. St. Clair County Illinois followed with 820. New York County recorded 317. Philadelphia recorded 267. Cook County Illinois held 176. The top 15 jurisdictions accounted for approximately 83% of all filings.

The 2025 update changes that picture in specific ways. The total moved up modestly to 4,244 (+5.8%). But the venue distribution shifted substantially.

Madison County stayed near the top with 872 filings, down only 1.8% from 882. The county’s decade-long position as the leading single-venue asbestos court held. But St. Clair County, the second-ranked Illinois venue, dropped to 657. That is a 22.4% decline in a single year. The two Illinois counties combined still held 1,529 filings, about 36% of the national total, but the share is consolidating in Madison County rather than spreading across the metro.

The growth landed elsewhere. Philadelphia jumped 39.7% to 380 filings. New York County jumped 25.1% to 399. Cook County Illinois jumped 34.3% to roughly 280. St. Louis Missouri rose 28.5% to 176, registering as a notable activity center for the first time in years. Wayne County Michigan recorded 159. Los Angeles County declined to 135.

Why Illinois Still Dominates

Madison County’s filing volume isn’t an accident. Illinois venue law under 735 ILCS 5/2-101 permits filing in any county where any defendant has its principal place of business or has committed the tort. Major asbestos defendants, including national product manufacturers, have Illinois business contacts. That means a plaintiff in Texas or Ohio can file in Madison County if a defendant sold products into Illinois. The county’s dedicated asbestos docket and concentrated judicial expertise make the procedural environment predictable.

Defense counsel have challenged this venue structure repeatedly. Illinois appellate courts have consistently upheld the rules as written. Until the legislature acts or the Illinois Supreme Court reverses course, Madison County remains a valid filing destination for mesothelioma cases nationally. See Illinois mesothelioma statistics for the 2026 baseline and the Illinois verdicts and settlements record for the broader context.

What Changed in St. Clair County

St. Clair County’s 22.4% decline is the largest single-venue movement in the 2025 data. The KCIC report does not attribute the drop to any specific procedural ruling. We don’t either. What the data shows is that filings that historically went to St. Clair are now appearing in Madison County, in Cook County (also up 34.3%), and in venues outside Illinois entirely.

The bench composition in the asbestos courts changes over time. Procedural orders affect plaintiff firm strategy. Multi-firm collective decisions about where to file particular case types shift filing patterns at scale. Without a primary source identifying the specific drivers, the most defensible reading is that plaintiff counsel collectively re-evaluated the St. Clair venue’s strategic position and reallocated some filings.

The Eastern Coastal Surge

Philadelphia’s 39.7% gain is the clearest single-venue growth story in the 2025 data. The Court of Common Pleas Mass Tort Program in Philadelphia has handled asbestos cases under a dedicated program for years. The 2025 jump puts Philadelphia within striking distance of New York for the title of largest non-Illinois asbestos venue.

New York County’s 25.1% gain is the parallel coastal story. The New York City Asbestos Litigation (NYCAL) docket handles consolidated asbestos cases under specific case management orders that have evolved over decades. The 2025 jump from 317 to 399 brings NYCAL closer to Philadelphia in absolute volume. The two coastal venues together absorbed approximately 195 net new filings in 2025, more than the entire net national gain.

Cook County’s 34.3% jump completes the consolidation pattern. As St. Clair declines and Madison County holds steady, Chicago is absorbing some of the Illinois-based filings that previously landed downstate. See the Pennsylvania mesothelioma statistics for 2026 and the New York 2026 statistics for the underlying disease incidence in those states.

The Plaintiff Firm Consolidation

Venue migration is not the only structural shift. KCIC’s data shows the plaintiff bar is consolidating in parallel.

In 2014, 184 plaintiff law firms filed asbestos cases nationally. By 2023, that number had dropped to 134. Fewer firms are handling more cases per firm. The trend is consistent with what defense counsel have observed in their own practice: a small group of national mass tort firms now controls a growing share of new filings, while smaller regional firms either close their asbestos practices or refer cases to the larger players.

For people with mesothelioma evaluating their options, this matters in a specific way. The selection criteria for an attorney, mesothelioma case experience, trust fund familiarity, willingness to try cases, remain unchanged. But the universe of firms practicing in this area is smaller than it was a decade ago. Selection has become more concentrated.

What the 2025 Mid-Year Number Suggests for 2026

KCIC’s 2025 mid-year update tracks filings through roughly the first half of the year. The full 2025 Year in Review is expected in early 2027. The annual benchmark cycle means our 2025 numbers are based on the mid-year report plus end-of-year tracking by KCIC and trade press.

The pattern suggests three things to watch in the 2026 data. First, whether Philadelphia continues its growth trajectory or stabilizes near 400 filings. Second, whether St. Clair County continues to decline or finds a new floor. Third, whether the coastal venues’ absorption of new filings reflects a permanent restructuring or a temporary plaintiff-firm reallocation that will reverse.

The 2025 jump in St. Louis, +28.5% to 176 filings, deserves separate attention. The Missouri venue handled some of the largest J&J talc verdicts of the past three years. If filings continue to grow at the 2025 pace, St. Louis will appear as a top-10 national venue for the first time in the post-Madison era.

Settlement Dynamics Across Migrating Venues

Cases filed in different venues settle at different rates and at different values. Defense firms evaluate settlement ranges in part by trial risk in the filing jurisdiction. A county with a track record of plaintiff-favorable verdicts is a different negotiating environment than a venue where asbestos cases rarely reach a jury. See Illinois mesothelioma verdicts and settlements and Pennsylvania mesothelioma verdicts for the recent records in each state.

Madison County’s history of substantial mesothelioma verdicts continues to influence settlement positioning. Philadelphia’s Mass Tort Program has produced verdicts including the Emerson talc case that affect defendant calculations. The migration of filings to coastal venues is being absorbed by courts with their own established verdict patterns.

For people with mesothelioma, the venue decision is one piece of a complex calculation. The strength of the exposure evidence, the specific defendants named, the plaintiff’s occupation and work history, and the available trust fund claims all affect case value. An attorney who handles mesothelioma cases can assess which venue, given the specific facts of a case, offers the best procedural fit. See the mesothelioma legal options guide for the broader framework.

What the Migration Means for the Decade Ahead

The KCIC data describes a litigation system in transition. The dominant Illinois venues that anchored asbestos litigation through the 2010s are still anchoring it, but the share of new filings landing in Illinois is shifting from St. Clair to Madison and Cook, and from Illinois overall to the eastern coastal venues. The plaintiff bar is consolidating into a smaller number of larger firms.

Whether this is a permanent reordering or a transitional period that will revert depends on factors that aren’t in the 2025 data: future appellate rulings on personal jurisdiction, defense firm strategy on motion practice in newer venues, the next round of corporate bankruptcies that send claims to 524(g) trusts rather than civil dockets. The KCIC 2026 Year in Review, when it publishes in early 2027, will be the next data point on whether the migration is accelerating or stabilizing.

For now, the 2025 data is the clearest signal that the asbestos litigation map is being redrawn. The numbers are public. The implications for how cases will be filed, where they will be tried, and which venues will produce the next decade’s verdicts are what the next few years will show.