Boyd County — Ashland and Catlettsburg — holds the Armco (AK Steel) Ashland Works and the Marathon refinery, one of the largest inland refineries in the country, where steelmaking and refining reportedly relied heavily on asbestos-containing insulation and refractory for decades.
Kentucky gives just one year — among the shortest deadlines in the country — from a mesothelioma or asbestos-cancer diagnosis to file a personal-injury claim (KRS 413.140), with the clock running from diagnosis under the discovery rule. A wrongful-death claim must be brought within one year of death, and the estate’s personal representative has one year from appointment to file. Because Kentucky’s window is so short, an immediate case review matters more here than almost anywhere. Cases are filed in the county Circuit Court of proper venue; Kentucky has no statewide asbestos MDL.