By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: “I have considered giving people popcorn,” U.S. District Judge Kathleen Forrest told lawyers in the SEC’s fraud case against Fabrice Tourre which headed to the jury yesterday. “I’m going to tell you what I think is obvious,” the judge told counsel three days into trial, “We’re losing some of the […]
Keep Boredom at Bay Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm Earlier this Spring, a courthouse in Jackson Mississippi was actually invaded by snakes. That story might have made some in the plaintiff’s bar smile a bit, since in their view, Reptiles have been invading American courtrooms across the country for a few years now. Reptile: The 2009 Manual of the
Tame the Reptile in Your MedMal Defense Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Looking at the pictures above, you can’t help but focus on what isn’t there: The triangle, the pole, the sphere, and the snake below the surface. That focus isn’t a voluntary choice, but an artifact of the way our pattern-loving brain processes. We are impatient with incompleteness or ambiguity and
Address the Need for Closure Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: An Iowa jury just handed down a $240 million verdict on behalf of 32 mentally disabled men who lived and worked for decades at a turkey processing plant and were paid just $65 a month. That verdict, the largest ever in an EEOC case, captures the jurors’ feelings about such blatant exploitation, but
Check Your Jurors’ Power Level Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Over the weekend I gave a presentation at a law firm retreat in Palm Springs. The presentation drew from a recent mock trial in an insurance dispute and the deliberation video clips I was playing could’ve been seen as a parade of mistakes: jurors ignoring instructions, flagrantly applying their own
See the Process and Not Just the Product in Deliberation Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Last week in the U.S. Senate, a measure to require universal background checks on gun purchases failed to get the 60 votes needed to survive. The arguments supporting the common good of keeping firearms out of the wrong hands were, to 45 Senators, was not as strong as the individual rights
Speak to the Individual, Not the Common Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: This past Monday brought tragedy as bombs placed near the finish line of the Boston Marathon caused three deaths and hundreds of injuries. The attacks, at this point bearing the hallmarks of either an international or a domestic terrorist attack, have also reopened a wound in the national psyche, providing
Account for Mortal Thoughts After a Tragedy Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Many companies which are headquartered or do the bulk of their business outside the United States can be a little freaked out by the prospect of being at the mercy of an American jury. After all, as a uniquely American notion, the act of resolving disputes by drawing upon the
Non-U.S. Companies: Don’t Fear Being “Hometowned” in American Courts Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: I’m a little proud of the fact that, up to this point, I’ve managed to avoid writing about the Jodi Arias trial. But all that’s about to change, and not because of the volume of salacious detail that has emerged in the Arizona murder Defendant’s two weeks on the stand.
Use Juror Questions to Piece Together Your Case Challenges Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The fact that we ourselves are bracketed in time makes us want to see that span – a generation – as terribly important to who we are. Projecting that onto others as well, we tend to see people as products of their generation. That is the frame of mind that
Don’t Hate on Younger Jurors Read More »