Richard W. Bell's law office is at the
Valleydale Courtyard near Birmingham.
A suburban Birmingham attorney, with 44 years of experience in several areas of law, is a paying customer of the Ashley Madison (AM) extramarital-affair Web site, records show.
Richard W. "Dick" Bell, who has an office at 4956 Valleydale Road in north Shelby County, is known primarily for divorce and family law. He also has worked in product liability, probate inheritance, and medical malpractice.
What kind of lawyer is Bell. A man named Trey Horton posted a less-than-glowing review:
Trey Horton
8 months ago
Went in, Very old guy.... I told him about some tax things I would like to take care of. Paid him $500 - he said he was going to the IRS to pull my transcripts (that can be pulled online) the next day so when I met him next I asked to see them. Since he said he spent all day down there getting them and used the $500 I paid him.. . He could not produce them. Never saw them. I asked him what I needed to do, he offered no sort of plan, no sort of advice. Said let's offer them xyz and see what they say.... Give me a break. I can do that myself... Never went back. hate being lied to. Lost $500 beware...
Was Bell too tied up with Ashley Madison to tend to Mr. Horton's legal needs properly? Records made public from last summer's hack of the AM Web site suggest the answer might be yes.
Public records indicate Bell has been married multiple times--at least twice, to Nancy V. Bell and Cynthia A. Bell. A Pamela Bell was associated with him in the 1970s.
Records show that during much of the 1980s, Bell had significant tax issues with both the IRS and Alabama Department of Revenue
Based on published reports, it appears that Richard and Cindy Bell remain husband and wife. Cindy Bell ran as a Democrat for the State Senate in 2014 against long-time GOP incumbent J.T. "Jabo" Waggoner." and is a nurse and military veteran. Waggoner won the race with roughly 80 percent of the vote.
Cindy Bell
(From democracy.com)
This is from Cindy Bell's political biography:
Hard work. Trust. Honesty. Those are the values Cindy learned from her mother, who learned them from her father and mother. Those are the values Cindy will bring to Montgomery.
Today, Cindy and her husband, Richard, live those values. She is a mother of three children, Elliott, Erin, and Mandy, a grandmother of seven grandchildren, and the owner of an English bulldog named Winston. Cindy and her husband are active members in their church, where she sings every Sunday in the choir. Cindy’s family and community inspire her desire to serve Alabamians in the State Senate
Erin Bell Welborn, is an attorney with the Columbiana firm of J. Welborn and Associates. She and her mother, Cindy Bell, sound like first-class folks. Not so sure the same can be said for Richard W. Bell, given his interest in Ashley Madison and the cheating it promotes.
We twice contacted Richard W. Bell via e-mail seeking comment for this post. He did not respond. His Web site, richardwbelllaw.com, no longer is functioning. It apparently disappeared not long after we first contacted him about this story.
Previously:
(1) Edgar C. Gentle III--attorney at Gentle Turner Sexton and Harbison, Birmingham, AL (3/8/16)
(2) Stewart Springer--attorney, solo practice in Birmingham, AL. (3/9/16)
