Further Reflections on Insulting Judges

Via David Giacalone at the always-interesting ethicalEsq?: comes this article: "Verdict Set Aside Over Lawyer's Conduct". It tells the story of a leading New York medical malpractice plaintiffs' attorney whose insults and insinuations about the judge and defense counsel led the court to vacate a $16 million verdict in his client's favor. A sample:

Justice Green also faulted Moore for denigrating opposing counsel and several witnesses with "mocking comments," such as, 'With all due respect, I asked a question that a fourth grader could answer if he's telling the truth,' and 'The game is up, Doctor, I hate to tell you.'

The judge cited some of Moore's closing remarks as prejudicial toward the defense attorney, including comments that there was an 'orchestrated, deliberate, concerted effort' by the defendants 'to deprive plaintiff of justice,' and that the defense attorney 'did his best but he had to defend the indefensible.'

[Rhetorical Rule of Thumb: When an attorney prefaces anything with the phrase "with all due respect," the odds that a respectful remark will follow decrease rapidly toward zero.]

Our earlier discussion of this topic -- with a focus on the poor judgment of defendants' counsel in questioning judges' integrity -- can be found here.