James B. "Jim" Matthews III - Lawyer in Athens, GE

Jim handles a wide range of plaintiffs personal injury cases. He focuses his practice on product defects, medical negligence, and trucking accidents. Jim is actively involved in hernia mesh litigation, the Atrium C-Qur mesh products (he is State Liaison Counsel in New Hampshire) and mesh products made by C.R. Bard, Inc. (he is co-lead counsel in Rhode Island).

With more than 37 years of legal experience, Jim has earned a reputation as a seasoned and successful trial lawyer. In the early years of his career he defended hundreds of personal injury cases. He defended hospitals and physicians, trucking companies, and manufacturers of a wide range of products, including tobacco and asbestos products. He also worked on behalf of companies in business litigation matters.

Jim eventually decided to switch sides and, in 1990, he began practicing on behalf of plaintiffs. At Blasingame, Burch, Garrard Ashley, P.C., he now handles a wide variety of personal injury and wrongful death cases brought by injured victims and their families, as well as plaintiff business litigation. Most of Jims clients are referred to him by other attorneys and former clients he has helped in the past.

Jim is actively involved in the pelvic mesh and hernia mesh litigation. He is co-lead counsel in the C.R. Bard hernia mesh consolidated litigation in Rhode Island, was lead counsel in the Atrium C-Qur hernia mesh litigation in state court in New Hampshire and was state court liaison to the New Hampshire federal court C-Qur multi-district litigation. He had active roles during the discovery, pre-trial, and trial stages of the Ethicon/Johnson Johnson Physiomesh hernia mesh multidistrict litigation in Atlanta (which was settled before trial) and the C.R. Bard pelvic mesh MDL in federal court in Charleston, West Virginia (which settled after a win for his client in the first bellwether trial).