You have been retained to defend an attorney who has been sued by a former client for alleged malpractice in the underlying trial. Your adversary proposes to proceed by way of a suit-within-a-suit—that is, by presenting the underlying action in the malpractice suit as if the alleged malpractice had not occurred. Garcia v. Kozlov, Seaton, Romanini & Brooks, 179 N.J. 343, 358 (2004). Before you can agree, you remind yourself that there was no right to a jury trial in the underlying case.

Several questions arise: should the suit-within-a-suit be tried as one case before the judge in the malpractice action so that it most closely resembles the original action; should one jury decide both the suit-within-a-suit case and the professional malpractice claim; or should the claims be bifurcated, with the judge deciding the suit-within-a-suit first and then, if necessary, a jury to decide the professional malpractice claim.

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