By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: I was recently assisting in a criminal jury selection. Over the course of several days, we moved through close to 50 potential jurors. I heard over and over again both sides’ efforts to acquaint the venire members with the standard of proof and to assess their willingness to follow it. “It […]
Expect Jurors to Apply Their Own Standard of Proof Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: I was recently working with an expert witness facing his first time in an American courtroom, armed with English as his third language. At the end of our conversation, I told him that I thought he would really enjoy it, and find it truly interesting. I didn’t realize it at
Stage Fright in Court? Don’t Calm Down, Psych Up Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Ducks and Vikings have been prominent recently on the free expression front of the culture wars. The ‘Duck’ would be Duck Dynasty’s reality star Phil Robertson, who’s recent comments on homosexuality and race caused his network, A & E, to briefly suspend him from the show. The ‘Viking’ would be former
Frame It as “Freedom with Consequences” Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: A few days ago, I was reading through documents for a medical malpractice defense. The case involved a woman who died under OB/GYN care. As sometimes happens, I found myself wanting a mental picture as I read the story. After I typed in her name, my browser quickly returned the
Account for “Lookism” Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: As the new year begins, it is the time for resolutions. If you’re like many lawyers — constantly under the pull of future plans and deadlines — a good resolution might be to “live in the present moment,” or as the Zen masters say, to “be here, now.” That goal can be
Encourage Mindfulness Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Give me the bite-sized version, break it down into pieces, and tell it to me step-by-step. The brain loves to segment, and the process known as “chunking” seems to be a central part of how we recognize patterns, manage information, and form new insights. A recent perspective on the process
Chunk Your Trial Message Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: What does it take to beat a reptile? In most cases, a mongoose will do the job. As attention to the Reptile perspective on plaintiffs’ advocacy has been growing, an interest in the best modes of defending against it has finally started to catch up. The “Reptile,” of course refers
Defendants: Be the Mongoose Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: On the 170th Christmas after the publication of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, we finally have a diagnosis: Ebenezer Scrooge suffered from “affluenza.” That condition has surfaced most recently in the case of a well-off Fort Worth teenager who received probation and treatment, instead of a prison sentence for causing the deaths of four
Watch Out For Scrooge Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The Grand Old Party is putting a brand new emphasis on appealing to the female voter, even to the point of creating a course on how to speak to and run against women. This comes in the response to recent polling showing a gender gap in party support, and in the
Speak to the Person, Not the Gender Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Okay, let’s line up: Emotional people on the right, logical people on the left. Where would you line up? Too simple? Turns out it is. The idea of classing people in broad categories like emotional/logical, creative/analytic, or “left-brained”/”right-brained” is a staple of folk psychology commonly applied to the task of
Stop Trying to Adapt to ‘Left-‘ or ‘Right-Brained’ Jurors Read More »