A plaintiffs lawyer’s persistent “inappropriate commentary” throughout a personal injury trial, including calling defense counsel’s questions during cross-examination “’stupid,’” required an award of more than $2.5 million to be overturned and the case to be retried, a New Jersey appeals court has ruled.
In an unpublished per curiam opinion issued May 13, an Appellate Division panel reversed Camden County Superior Court Judge Louis Meloni’s ruling refusing to grant a new trial in Burkert v. Holcomb Bus Service Inc. The appeals court found that the plaintiff’s attorney—George J. Badey III of Badey Sloan & DiGenova in Philadelphia, according to a previous Law Journal article about the case and a press release issued after the trial—prejudiced the jury by making several improper comments about the defendant and defense counsel during the trial, despite Meloni’s numerous warnings.
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