The Fox Valley holds the densest paper-mill corridor in the world — the Kimberly-Clark works at Neenah, and the mills strung along the Fox River through Appleton, Combined Locks, and Kaukauna. Papermaking is a high-heat trade of digesters, dryers, and boilers, and for most of the century these mills reportedly ran on asbestos-containing insulation, and the trades who maintained them were reportedly exposed for full careers.
Wisconsin allows three years from a mesothelioma or asbestos-cancer diagnosis to file a personal-injury claim (Wis. Stat. § 893.54), with the clock starting when the disease is discovered or reasonably should have been. A wrongful-death claim runs three years from the date of death, which can open a new filing window. Cases are filed in the county Circuit Court of proper venue; Wisconsin has no statewide asbestos MDL, and Milwaukee County has historically carried the state’s largest asbestos docket.