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(formerly the Persuasive Litigator blog)

Author name: ken.brodabahm

Tell Your Patent Invention Story In a Way That is Worth Copyrighting

Patent Litigation, Strategy / /

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Last month, Uniloc USA lost a multiyear battle against Microsoft to preserve a $388 million jury award against the software giant, and will now be retrying the patent infringement case on damages alone.  One thing Uniloc has in its corner for retrial is a compelling invention story:  a plucky Australian inventor working since the early […]

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Don’t Wear The Black Hat Lightly: You’re Not the Bad Guy Because You’re at Fault, You’re at Fault Because You’re the Bad Guy.

Adapting to Jurors, Bias, Energy Litigation / /

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – So, let’s say you are BP, and after the Deepwater Horizon spill you are facing several thousand claims in the courtroom.  You are potentially more worried by one big claim in the court of public opinion:  you’re seen as a bad actor.  That perception certainly has less to do with any causal analysis of the failure of

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Persuade Using Both Alpha and Omega Strategies

Bias, Opening Statement, Products Liability Litigation, Social Media, Strategy / /

By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Never heard of “Alpha” and “Omega” strategies for persuasion?  Until recently, neither had I.  But after reading the research, it has changed my way of looking at persuasion.  The terms are based on something called the “approach-avoidance” model (Knowles & Linn, 2004), suggesting that to an audience, every position you

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Beware of the Jury’s “Filter Bubble”

Adapting to Jurors, Public Perception, Social Media / /

By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – You may not have heard the phrase “filter bubble,” but it refers to an internet phenomena, as well as to some basic psychology on how we receive and process information.  More fully explained in the video clip below, Eli Pariser coined the phrase to refer to the individual separation (that is the ‘bubble’

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Your Opening: Tell It Like a Story, but Tailor It Like a Strategy

Narrative, Opening Statement / /

By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – It is now a truism that effective opening statements tell a story.  Now that it is, once again, Blagojevic trial season in Chicago, prosecutors are telling a story of a desperate politician’s attempt to wring personal fortune out of political opportunity, as the defense waits to tell a competing story of an overzealous

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Don’t Count on Gender Differences When it Comes to Compassion

Adapting to Jurors, Voir Dire / /

By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – We are often asked, “What kind of jurors do we want for our case?” and sometimes that question can veer toward demographics:  “Do we want women or men?” In personal injury litigation, for example, the lawyers trying the case might suspect that women will show more compassion and sympathy toward an injured party,

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A Mixture of Justice and Revenge: Target Juror Psychology in Awarding Damages

Adapting to Jurors, Bias, Damages, Products Liability Litigation / /

By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm –   Exactly what do people celebrate when they see a fitting result?  Sometimes it is justice, and sometimes it includes a measure of payback or revenge as well.  Just over a week ago, news from the Oval Office ignited jubilant celebrations in Times Square and many other parts of the country.  Scenes

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In Malpractice Litigation, Account for Jurors’ Motive to Trust the Doctor

Adapting to Jurors, Bias, Professional Malpractice Litigation / /

By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – There is a pattern in medical malpractice litigation: people want to trust their doctors. This pattern is something observed in our own experience, in human psychology, and in attitudes toward malpractice trials. Plaintiffs only win when jurors are able to overcome that trust. The best thing that doctor-defendants have

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Convert Your Conspiracy Theorists: Research Shows it Can Be Done

Adapting to Jurors, Bias, Strategy / /

By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Those who count on the human ability to prioritize reason and evidence over unshakable conviction — and all participants in the litigation process ought to count themselves in that group — should take note of the persistence of questions over the President’s place of birth, and the sad take-away

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