Josh B. Wages

Josh B. Wages has been with Blasingame, Burch, Garrard & Ashley, P.C. since he graduated law school in 1998. He has helped clients with everything from medical malpractice and nursing home litigation to products liability and mass tort lawsuits and more. Josh enjoys being able to provide clients with all of the advantages of a large, world-class firm — without the drawbacks. Says Josh, “We have the experience and resources necessary to handle most any case, but we are small enough to operate with efficiency and to provide real value for our clients.”

Born in Gainesville, Georgia in 1973, Josh grew up in Athens where he attended the University of Georgia where he was a member of the Honor’s Program, Phi Kappa Phi, Beta Gamma Sigma, and Golden Key. He earned his B.B.A. cum laude with high honors in 1995 before going on to obtain his law degree cum laude at the University of Georgia School of Law in 1998.

Since 2006, Josh has focused much of his practice on seeking justice for victims of surgical mesh devices across the country. He was instrumental in nationwide federal cases involving the Mentor ObTape Multidistrict Litigation (MDL), including those dealing with Mentor Corp.’s ObTape mesh device and Tyco Healthcare’s IVS Tunneller device, all of which ultimately were resolved after years of litigation in federal court.

Additionally, since 2008, Josh has been involved with pelvic repair mesh device cases which have since been transferred to the Southern District of West Virginia. Josh was heavily involved in seeking the MDL transfer of these federal cases, including those involving pelvic repair devices distributed by C.R. Bard, Boston Scientific, Ethicon and American Medical Systems. Three other MDLs involving three additional pelvic repair product manufacturers — Cook, Coloplast, and Neomedic — were later transferred to MDL Judge Joseph R. Goodwin of the Southern District of West Virginia. Together, these seven MDLs comprised well over 100,000 separate cases, making it one of the largest medical device product liability litigations in U.S. history. Judge Goodwin appointed Josh to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for each of these pelvic mesh MDLs. As a member of the Plaintiffs’ leadership, Josh worked with attorneys from across the nation toward a resolution of this unprecedented litigation, which all told, resulted in billions of dollars in settlements for these plaintiffs.

In addition to his work with pelvic mesh MDLs, Josh has recently worked on behalf of individuals injured by hernia mesh devices. Josh has helped injured victims pursue claims against a number of faulty hernia mesh sellers, including Atrium, C.R. Bard, Ethicon and Covidien in courts across the United States. Josh has also worked with many clients who were injured by other types of defective medical devices and other products, including Johnson & Johnson talcum powder products and IVC filters.

Josh is also an accomplished legal writer. In his years of practice, he has briefed and argued many motions before both federal and state courts in Georgia. He has also briefed and argued motions in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, and briefed appeals in the Georgia Supreme Court, the Georgia Court of Appeals, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Additionally, he has argued appeals before the Georgia Court of Appeals, the Georgia Supreme Court, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Josh has received the highest peer rating possible, an AV® Rating by Martindale-Hubbell®, based on his commitment to high legal and ethical standards.