By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Have you ever had the same advertisement chase you around the internet? So you looked at that new suitcase once, and now it is popping up on every page you view. That effect is one part of our current world, where marketers and other persuaders seem to know more and more […]
Consider the Small Chance that “Big Data” Might Pick Your Jury Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Every lawyer who has ever met with a witness to prepare that person for testimony has probably stressed the ability to be calm and focused while testifying. And after meeting with a great many future witnesses over the years, it’s possible to arrive at the feeling that some witnesses have that ability and
Find a Mindful Way Out of the Stress of Testimony Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Some computer scientists recently had to get creative about creativity. The researchers (Jordanous & Keller, 2016), from the Universities of Kent and Sussex in the UK, have been looking at computer-based intelligence, and specifically the ways computers can be assessed as exhibiting creative behaviors or not. Of course, that is what makes
Be Creative (in All 14 Ways) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It is a situation where the common sense advice is in conflict and the platitudes can go both ways: Don’t keep your light under a bushel, but pride goeth before the fall. Practically speaking, do you boast about your abilities, or to you keep it humble? For a witness in court,
Brag Your Competence, But Not Your Character Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: This past Tuesday, it was time for the 2016 campaign’s vice presidential debate pitting Republican Mike Pence against Democrat Tim Kaine. Broadly, the vice presidential comparison does not matter too much, because people tend to vote based on party and based on the person at the top — not so much
Be a Good Second Chair: Notes from the Veep Debate Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: You may have seen the video called “Order in the Classroom.” The piece, the work of the National Jury Trial Innovations Project, offers a quick and humorous take on what a college course would look like if it were run with all of the constraints of a trial. In the video, the
Let the Jurors Take and Review Notes Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: This is a political season for double standards, glass ceilings, and dancing backwards in high heels. Hillary Clinton, as the first female to be nominated for President by a major party, finds herself locked in a close race with one of the least conventional candidates in modern times, Donald Trump. That combination
Look Like You’re Winning (Part Two) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: There is a central fiction of our jury trial system, and voir dire in particular. That fiction is that bias is the exception, not the rule. When we treat bias as the aberration, affecting a relatively small handful in any jury pool, we fail to appreciate the ubiquity of these habits and shortcuts
Know Your Cognitive Biases Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Don’t you think that, when faced with a choice between a safer option and a riskier option, one should take the safer option? Well, on face that seems pretty reasonable. Who wouldn’t want the safer option, after all? The problem is that if you take that literally, then you’ve probably never climbed into
Safely Handle the “Safety Rule” Question Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The peremptory challenge right now shares one problem with the two leading presidential contenders: high negatives. In the recent Foster v. Chatman case, the United States Supreme Court overturned a murder conviction due to the prosecutor’s use of peremptory strikes to eliminate African-Americans from the jury based on seemingly flimsy excuses such
Don’t Expect Cause Challenges to Do the Work of Peremptories Read More »