Harry Bell, Founder of The Bell Law Firm and a native of Charleston, has helped bring a voice to more than 25,000 women over the past year. As six MDL cases over alledgedly defective transvaginal mesh (TVM) medical implants before United States District Judge Joseph Goodwin remain pending, Bell has had a key role in bringing awareness of these victims, and the massive set of defective product liability lawsuits, (together known as multi-district litigation cases, or MDLs,) to the public.
The personal injury medical device cases come before federal court in the US District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. It is not uncommon for groups of 50 lawyersor more, to gather in the Kanawha Valley to hear updates about the cases before Judge Goodwin in status conferences.
“This has significance to women around the country facing serious medical problems” said Bell, in an entreaty during the status conference. Little local news coverage has existed until just recently,” Bell says, “yet the Federal JPML Panel who has assigned these cases to Judge Goodwin obviously recognizes and appreciates the incredibly skilled and dedicated Judicary in the SD of WV from the Judges on down to the Clerk’s office and the even the Robert C. Byrd Courthouse itself as a facility with the capabilities to handle these size matters.”
Bell, who has been appointed by the Court as co-liaison counsel and who works with numerous out-of-state firms, sits on the Plaintiff Steering Committee (PSC) for transvaginal mesh cases, has worked to publicize how these MDLs will help victims of defective TVM. In July, Bell was quoted in both The National Law Journal and Charleston’s Daily Mail. Bell is a frequent speaker at national conferences on the state of TVM cases and has been featured as a commentator for the website MeshMedicalDeviceNewsDesk.com, a blog focused solely on TVM litigation. There is also extensive information about TVM lawsuits on The Bell Law Firm’s website, www.belllaw.com.
Aside from the legal prestige and respect the US District Court for the SD of WV enjoys as they handle this massive litigation, West Virginia and Charleston is also expected to benefit economically, first in the hospitality industry due to the influx of legal professionals, experts and staffs, and later, due to allocated resources within the Court system recognizing the large influx of filed cases.
