By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Lucy, for the umpteenth time, holds the football and invites Charlie Brown to kick it with the promise that this time, she won’t pull the ball at the last moment and send him flying. His response: “I don’t mind your dishonesty, half as much as I mind your opinion […]
Avoid Condescension and Other Sins of Legal Argument: Know Your ‘Second Persona’ Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – “The men totally dominated the discussion the last time,” said JoAnn Chiakulas, the hold-out juror in Rod Blagojevich’s first corruption trial, “and a lot of the women were not treated very nicely.” The former governor’s newer jury consisted of eleven women and one man you might expect a change in that department. But this second jury deliberated
That’s Right, The Women Are Smarter: Pay Attention to Your Jury’s Social Intelligence Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – When the Casey Anthony jury moves to the deliberation phase in the near future, it is possible to imagine one of two scenarios for how those deliberations discussions will start: Scenario One: Okay, who here feels that she is guilty? Let’s just go around the table… Scenario Two: Okay, let’s start
Determine Whether Your Jurors Are Driven by Process or by Verdict Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – We all remember Aesop’s fable of the happy-go-lucky grasshopper who played away the summer while the ants worked industriously. When winter came, and the hungry grasshopper ended up at the ant’s door, the moral of the story became clear: entitlement, the feeling that the world owes you a living,
Spot the Jurors Who Feel Entitled to Award Higher Damages Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Attorneys, consultants, and experts know testimony needs to be delivered with more than just clarity and authority. It needs confidence. Jurors and judges alike are more comfortable with an expert’s testimony when it is delivered with self-assurance and conveyed with certainty. But according to research sponsored by The American
Experts: Don’t Cross The Line Between Confidence and Arrogance Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – So, let’s say you are BP, and after the Deepwater Horizon spill you are facing several thousand claims in the courtroom. You are potentially more worried by one big claim in the court of public opinion: you’re seen as a bad actor. That perception certainly has less to do with any causal analysis of the failure of
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – When I heard that the world would be ending on May 21, 2011, I knew that I would be set either way: If the world didn’t end, I would have a good blog topic, and if it did, well then, no more worrying about blog topics. So, here we are,
Be Relatively Cautious With Absolutist Jurors Read More »
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – You may not have heard the phrase “filter bubble,” but it refers to an internet phenomena, as well as to some basic psychology on how we receive and process information. More fully explained in the video clip below, Eli Pariser coined the phrase to refer to the individual separation (that is the ‘bubble’
Beware of the Jury’s “Filter Bubble” Read More »
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – We are often asked, “What kind of jurors do we want for our case?” and sometimes that question can veer toward demographics: “Do we want women or men?” In personal injury litigation, for example, the lawyers trying the case might suspect that women will show more compassion and sympathy toward an injured party,
Don’t Count on Gender Differences When it Comes to Compassion Read More »
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Exactly what do people celebrate when they see a fitting result? Sometimes it is justice, and sometimes it includes a measure of payback or revenge as well. Just over a week ago, news from the Oval Office ignited jubilant celebrations in Times Square and many other parts of the country. Scenes
A Mixture of Justice and Revenge: Target Juror Psychology in Awarding Damages Read More »