By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: In this country, and particularly in some venues, our jury pools are becoming more diverse and more obviously multicultural (Marder, 2013). While the judiciary has been slower to reflect the face of a changing America (Ifill, 2009), it too is likely to include over time a greater proportion of those […]
Appeal to Both the Holistic and the Analytic Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: To supplement the written descriptions in the previous two entries, this post features a video demonstration designed to illustrate the approach to attorney-conducted oral voir dire that I’ve been writing about. Using a number of volunteers from my firm, I created this clip in order to show and discuss the
Practice the Pivot in Oral Voir Dire (Part Three): The Demonstration Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: If, by the end of oral voir dire, you’ve broken the ice, earned some credibility and rapport, learned the basis for at least a handful of cause challenges and strikes, and spent the balance of your time eliciting themes from jurors that help your case, then you’ve done your job.
Practice the Pivot in Oral Voir Dire (Part Two): Good Habits and Tricky Situations Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: When voir dire goes well, it creates a balance between the goals of spotting the high-risk jurors and safely drawing themes from the more favorable jurors. At the same time, the questioning process should build rapport and feel natural to both the attorney and the panelists. When voir dire goes
Practice the Pivot in Oral Voir Dire (Part One): The Basic Model Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: As much as we celebrate thought and cognition, we still tend to experience the world in a tactile fashion, through our bodies. And as much as we celebrate innovation and originality, we still tend to understand the new in terms of what is already familiar. Putting the two together, a
Use Metaphors to Touch Your Fact Finders Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Many companies which are headquartered or do the bulk of their business outside the United States can be a little freaked out by the prospect of being at the mercy of an American jury. After all, as a uniquely American notion, the act of resolving disputes by drawing upon the
Non-U.S. Companies: Don’t Fear Being “Hometowned” in American Courts Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The way we create, locate, and measure public opinion is changing, and fast. It used to be that we treated the body public as a passive audience waiting to be canvased, surveyed, or focus-grouped. Today, however, people in all demographics are active in public and semipublic internet spaces creating, sharing, and liking
Account for Social Media Distortion Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: I’m a little proud of the fact that, up to this point, I’ve managed to avoid writing about the Jodi Arias trial. But all that’s about to change, and not because of the volume of salacious detail that has emerged in the Arizona murder Defendant’s two weeks on the stand.
Use Juror Questions to Piece Together Your Case Challenges Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: A recent blog post written by a juror in the trial of Jim Fayed, a gold trader convicted of arranging the brutal murder of his estranged wife in a Los Angeles parking garage, included some rather colorful descriptions of the prosecutor’s use of demonstrative graphics: …And then there were the
Follow the Ten Commandments of Graphics Use in Trial Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Once more, over the cliff! Our lawmakers have had to make, or not make, some risky decisions lately. The “sequester,” a poison pill of across-the-board cuts designed to force a spending compromise, has just done what no one believed it would do when it was created in 2011: It’s gone
Speak to the Brain’s Politics Read More »