Three W.Va. firms on national Comcast case committee

PHILADELPHIA – West Virginia law firms won three of 13 seats on a committee that will guide national litigation against cable provider Comcast.

U.S. District Judge Anita Brody appointed Bailey and Glasser of Charleston, Harry Bell of Charleston, and Wexler Wallace of Wheeling to a plaintiff steering committee in multi district litigation at federal court in Philadelphia.

Brody picked the Roda Nast firm of Lancaster, Pa., as lead counsel. No one but lead counsel can file a motion or request discovery.

Plaintiffs allege that Comcast illegally ties programming to cable box rentals.

One of the suits came from West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw.

McGraw sued Comcast in Marshall County, in association with private lawyers Carl Frankovitch of Weirton and Teresa Toriseva of Wheeling.

Comcast removed the suit to federal court at Wheeling on Aug. 3. On Aug. 12, multi district judges in Washington transferred it to Brody.

For a few weeks McGraw tried to pull it back to Marshall County, but on Oct. 2 he dropped his resistance to Brody's jurisdiction.