Walter Pacheco

KCIC Consulting, which specializes in asbestos litigation, has released its annual report looking back at the 2025 lawsuit landscape in the U.S. Among some of the significant findings in this report is the 47% jump in a single year, which is the sharpest single-year increase in this category on record, for asbestos-contaminated talc lawsuit filings. Overall asbestos lawsuit filings rose 6% nationally, and talc-only claims now account for 9% of these cases.

Pabst Brewing Company petitioned Wisconsin’s highest court to review the Court of Appeals’ decision in favor of the plaintiff. The Court of Appeals had itself been reviewing the original Milwaukee County Circuit Court judgment against Pabst. The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment that Pabst was responsible for the asbestos exposure that caused Gerald Lorbiecki’s mesothelioma.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ruth Kwan overturned a jury’s $950 million in punitive damages awarded to Mae K. Moore’s surviving children in their wrongful death lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson. Judge Kwan issued her ruling on March 13, 2026. Judge Kwan didn’t address the $16 million in compensatory damages in her ruling. Moore died in December 2021 from mesothelioma at age 88.