By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The reserved opening statement is a strategy that, in all my years helping in the courtroom, I have never seen applied. In theory, a defendant typically has the right to wait until the plaintiff or the state has put on its case, and then offer their opening statement just before […]
Reserve Your Opening? Three Ways that Rare Strategy Might Make Sense Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: You have your witness on the stand in direct examination. You have finished laying out the positive story that you want to tell, but you have one more thing to do before handing that witness over to the other side: You need to cover the bad stuff. At this stage,
Take the Medicine: Three Steps to Pre-empting Your Witness’s Bad Stuff Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: For those trained in the sciences, relying on illustrations or examples is not considered nearly as good as relying on data. If they call something “anecdotal,” then there is a good chance that the word “merely….” precedes it, and the adjective is being used to play down the point. From
Experts: Use Anecdotes, not Just Data Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Experienced trial lawyers know it is important that their witnesses are prepared to testify. At the deposition stage, and even when the likelihood of a trial is uncertain, it is critical to invest the time in making sure that the important witnesses know what to expect and are ready to go
Distinguish the Four Types or Phases of Witness Preparation Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Even if the pandemic is finally over, and even if it is the last pandemic we will ever experience — and both of those seem pretty optimistic — it is still worthwhile to study and to learn from the unprecedented adaptations we have seen the U.S. trial system make in
Know and Apply the Best Practices for the Online Courtroom Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: There was the childhood spent being a good student, then the hard years of college, and the even harder years of medical school, then residency, then years of building your expertise and your practice. Then came the event that many said was inevitable, but which you still thought you might
Account for Physician Litigation Stress Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Imagine you’re currently a citizen of the Russian Federation. The telephone rings, and the person on the other end of the line identifies themselves as a public opinion researcher, and they’re conducting a poll. “How do you feel about your country’s current ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine?” Well, given that
Avoid Social Desirability Bias in Voir Dire: Six Tips Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: When a juror looks at an act and declares it to be bad or good, where is that coming from? Well, hopefully, it is coming from the evidence. But inevitably, it is also coming from that juror’s own habits of moral judgment. And it isn’t just a choice formed in
Liberal and Conservative Jurors: Account for Different Moral Systems Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: As you are putting on your case at trial, and you go to call your next witness, there’s always a reaction from the jury box. It’s an opportunity for fresh attention from them, but it is often a bit of a mystery: Who is this new person? What is their role
First Answer in Direct: Introduce Yourself to the Jury Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: When thinking about the title for this post, I came awfully close to saying that certainty “matters more” than accuracy, but I thought that perhaps it might sound too cynical. But that stronger version is supported by the research: Jurors do seem to pay more attention to witness certainty than
Witnesses: Know that Certainty Matters as Much as Accuracy Read More »