By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The image of the trial lawyer that comes closest to our ideal might involve the advocate standing in front of the jury or the bench, waxing eloquent in oral argument. But the reality is that, even for lawyers who get to trial frequently, they’re writing more often than they’re speaking. […]
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Is there anything wrong with a witness meeting with a communication specialist in order to prepare for deposition or trial testimony? Maybe 30 years ago, the answers would have been “yes,” “maybe,” or “best not to arouse suspicions.” But trial consulting has come a long way from those early days
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: “You are not to cry,” the judge sternly warns the witness on the stand, a mother looking at postmortem photographs of her son. It seems like a pretty harsh and heartless instruction from the judge, especially to those less acquainted with the legal system. But this scene that played out
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: After traveling to Syria in the midst of a brutal war, 26-year-old Kayla Jean Mueller was captured by ISIS six months ago. The terror group now claims she was killed in a Jordanian airstrike while Americans hold out a little hope that she might be alive. As much as we understand
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It’s normal to vaccinate your kids, at least for most of us it is. The exceptions to the rule have recently brought back a disease the U.S. “eliminated” in 2000. In the first month of this year, measles visited Disneyland, and then infected hundreds of people so far in fourteen
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It’s said that there’s a story hiding in every case. And sometimes, depending on the attorney’s style and habits, that story can be hiding pretty darned well. An emphasis on presenting based on accumulated facts within a topical division of issues — a style taught in law school and prized
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: “The whole problem with the world,” according to an adage attributed to Bertrand Russell, “is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves and wiser people so full of doubts.” Reading the comments sections in just about any online magazine, it is easy to see those confident extremists. There
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: T.o.M stands for “Theory of Mind,” and it is a very academic name for a very practical concept that might determine the difference between an effective team and an ineffective one. That is a difference that should matter to most trial lawyers. In criminal law and more modest civil cases,
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: You wouldn’t know the results of last Fall’s congressional midterm elections from watching the State of the Union Address this past Tuesday. It looked for all like a victory lap for President Barack Obama: The economy is rebounding, the unemployed and the uninsured are down, and America has ended the two
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The name “Discovery” doesn’t quite do justice to the litigation phase it describes. When it’s done well and with purpose, the point of discovery isn’t so much to discover evidence as it is to create evidence. In deposition, for example, the deposing attorney’s fondest wish is not to discover the witness’s view of what
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