Lake County is the core of the Calumet — U.S. Steel’s Gary Works, the Inland Steel (ArcelorMittal) works at East Chicago, the LTV and Youngstown mills at Hammond, and the BP Whiting refinery, the largest in the Midwest. These were among the most asbestos-intensive worksites in the country, and Lake County has long carried one of Indiana’s heaviest asbestos dockets.
Indiana allows two years from a mesothelioma or asbestos-cancer diagnosis to file a personal-injury claim (Ind. Code § 34-11-2-4), and two years from the date of death for a wrongful-death claim (§ 34-23-1-1). Indiana has no statute of repose for asbestos cases — the Indiana Supreme Court struck down the ten-year manufacturing cutoff in Myers v. Crouse-Hinds (2016) — so a claim is not barred by how long ago the exposure occurred. Cases are filed in the county Circuit or Superior Court of proper venue; Indiana has no statewide asbestos MDL.