By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: If you’re outside in the dark, maybe aided by a little starlight or moonlight, you can probably see your surroundings a bit dimly: You can’t see everything, but hopefully you see enough that you don’t stumble. Now, add a flashlight. The path you’re pointing the light at is now quite […]
Remember that Memory is Selection, not Retrieval Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Attorneys know that, in the public’s eye, the profession isn’t winning any popularity contests. In a Gallup poll last year, only 21 percent rated lawyers’ ethics as “high” (16 percent) or “very high” (5 percent). This compares to 80 percent who say nurses’ ethics are high and 65 percent who say the
Account for Anti-Lawyer Bias in Legal Malpractice Trials Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: I am now involved in a rash of post-trial juror interviews. Currently, I have interviews in progress in three cases. As luck would have it, there is one win, one loss, and one draw (mistrial). While the calls have occupied a fair amount of my time lately, post-trial interviews more broadly
Follow Nine Rules for Post-Trial Juror Interviews Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Lawyers like to be efficient in communication, particularly in the setting of litigation, bound as it is by time and relevance. Perspicuity when persuading is considered a virtue in that setting and “Don’t do what isn’t necessary” is generally a good rule to follow. But on the subject of graphics,
Use Charts (Even If the Need Seems Trivial) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: I often play the role of the “judge” during a mock trial. In that capacity, I have the pleasure of reading the legal instructions to the mock jurors just before they deliberate. While I’m droning on about “preponderance,” and “proximate cause,” and making the plaintiff “whole,” I am often met
Embrace Plain English Jury Instructions Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: A jury’s job is to judge the facts in a dispute in as neutral a fashion as possible. We expect them to give a party a fair hearing whether the party is just like them or completely dissimilar. The elderly conservative should be able to evaluate the dreadlocked artist as
Look for Increasing Tolerance (but Not Necessarily Greater Empathy) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: What is the greatest problem facing Americans? Is it climate change? Class division? Race relations? The sluggish economic recovery? The growing threat of terrorism? The risk of another Middle Eastern war? No, it’s none of those. According to a current Gallup poll tracing the last four months, the biggest challenge
Anticipate Antigovernment Attitudes Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: When the facts supporting one’s beliefs are challenged, one common recourse is to reframe those beliefs in a way that is more resistant to factual refutation. Calling this the “flight from facts,” a new article in Scientific American shares an example: An anti-vaccine believer first notes the purported connection between vaccines and autism,
Fight the “Flight from Facts” Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: As the second penalty-phase trial for Jodi Arias ended last week with a hung jury and a mistrial, the word from the jury, 11 of 12 of them, was frustration. “We feel like we failed,” one said to ABC15, and the group issued an apology to the family of murder victim
Don’t Get Too Hung Up Over Hung Juries Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Language is the cognitive and social invention that made it possible for us to resolve conflicts with reason rather than force. Language begat law, and law in turn begat litigation. Lawyers work with words, and particularly those who are in the trial business understand very well that language isn’t neutral. Instead,