By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – One stereotype of the litigious American society suggests that jurors are willing to hold manufacturers and sellers responsible for even the most obvious product dangers: a ladder that allows its user to fall, or a cup of coffee that turns out to be hot. While anecdotes abound — some true, and […]
Address the Most Dangerous Feature of Your Product: Dishonesty Read More »
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Watching the Wizard of Oz recently with my three (and a half!)-year-old daughter, we came to the familiar scene of the fearless Toto interrupting the Wizard’s speech by pulling back the curtain on a man furiously working levers and wheels. When Dorothy and company ignore the instruction to “pay
In Jury Selection, Pay All Kinds of Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain Read More »
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – So, a retired Brazilian judge, two American litigators, and three German engineers walk into a bar… Okay, so it wasn’t a bar, it was an international arbitration, but the potential for miscommunication is just as great as the joke intro would imply. This one took place in Sao Paulo, Brazil and
Keep Your International Arbitration out of the Tower of Babel Read More »
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – On some days, just watching the news can stop us cold. Those who work in law should be proud to be part of a system that, however imperfectly, resolves disputes with appeals to reason and judgment rather than force. But the opposite end of the spectrum was seen in last week’s devastating shooting
Don’t Advocate from a Position of Hate Read More »
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – When dealing with the number of plaintiffs in a class action, mass tort, or other large scale litigation, is “Super-Size Me” the plaintiff’s best choice? At a legal level, the U.S. Supreme Court will get a chance to weigh in, after the decision last week to determine whether as
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – As closing arguments finished in a recent employment jury trial that I sat through, the defense team and I felt, predictably, that we had the overwhelming weight of evidence on our side of the case. But still, we worried as the jury filed in to deliberate. We had faced a Plaintiff’s case
Understand Juror Bias, But Bet On The Evidence Read More »
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – In litigation it is often true that, “the devil is in the data,” in the sense that numbers and how they’re presented can be extremely important. In employment cases, jurors often need to grasp the overall percentages that prove or disprove a discrimination claim. In mass tort pharmaceutical cases, expert
Choose a “Moving” Way to Convey Evidentiary Data Read More »
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – U.S. District Court Judge G. Thomas Porteous, in his recent Senate trial, was called “something of a moocher.” Earlier this year, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was called “foolish,” and “not the sharpest knife in the drawer.” With comments like these coming from their own lawyers, it is enough to make you
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Reacting to new evidence of support in the public as well as the U.S. military for allowing lesbians and gays to serve openly, those who support a continuation of a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy continue to warn of a dangerous loss of troop cohesion and morale, as well as the potential loss
The Persuasion Strategy You Have to Fear…Is Fear Itself Read More »
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm For the litigator preparing a witness or working up an opening statement, there is an important question of whether you should just make your own case, or identify and respond to the arguments likely to be offered by the other side. For the witness, should you cover in direct what you expect will be hit on cross,
With Eggs and Arguments, Keep the Sunny Side Up, But Cook Both Sides Read More »