Wood County — Wisconsin Rapids and Marshfield — is a paper town, home to the Consolidated Papers (Nekoosa) mills, whose pulp digesters, dryers, and boilers reportedly relied on asbestos-containing insulation for most of the twentieth century.

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.