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(formerly the Persuasive Litigator blog)

Bias

Define “Reasonable Person” As Your Jurors’ Idealized Version of Themselves

Adapting to Jurors, Bias, Products Liability Litigation, Public Perception, Voir Dire / /

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Sometimes you come across a document that challenges your view of basic human goodness.  The stomach-churning Grand Jury Report relating to the Pennsylvania State football scandal is one such document.  What stands out, based on the allegations, is just how many times former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was caught.  In locker rooms, workout […]

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“Life Qualify” Your Capital Jury (And Balance Out Your Civil Panel Too)

Adapting to Jurors, Bias, Voir Dire / /

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Here is some practical advice for capital defense jury selection that carries important implications for civil cases as well.  It is well established that the process of “death qualifying” a capital jury, by weeding out those have a moral or other objection to the death penalty, ends up biasing the panel

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Bad Company: Investigate the Sources of Anti-Corporate Attitudes

Adapting to Jurors, Bias, Public Perception / /

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: As we enter the 20th day of protesters’ continued occupation of Wall Street, and sit-ins spread to similar sites across the country, what stands out the most is the sheer variety of their causes.  The first declaration to emerge from the Wall Street encampment highlights concerns ranging from home foreclosures, to government bailouts, faulty products, medical

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No Blank Slate (Part 3): With Judges, Arbitrators, and Mediators, Don’t Assume They’re Neutral

Adapting to Arbitrators, Adapting to Judges, Bias, Employment Litigation, Mediation / /

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Judges, arbitrators, mediators:  legally trained and neutral minds, without the juror’s baggage of selective perception, predisposition, and bias, right?  Not really.  In the previous two posts on motivated thinking and instrumental argument, I wrote that an audience’s reasoning and advocacy is driven by emotions and not just by logic.  While a jury’s decision making

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Avoid Condescension and Other Sins of Legal Argument: Know Your ‘Second Persona’

Adapting to Jurors, Bias, Public Perception / /

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

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Spot the Jurors Who Feel Entitled to Award Higher Damages

Adapting to Jurors, Bias, Comprehension, Damages / /

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,

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Don’t Wear The Black Hat Lightly: You’re Not the Bad Guy Because You’re at Fault, You’re at Fault Because You’re the Bad Guy.

Adapting to Jurors, Bias, Energy Litigation / /

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

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Persuade Using Both Alpha and Omega Strategies

Bias, Opening Statement, Products Liability Litigation, Social Media, Strategy / /

By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Never heard of “Alpha” and “Omega” strategies for persuasion?  Until recently, neither had I.  But after reading the research, it has changed my way of looking at persuasion.  The terms are based on something called the “approach-avoidance” model (Knowles & Linn, 2004), suggesting that to an audience, every position you

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A Mixture of Justice and Revenge: Target Juror Psychology in Awarding Damages

Adapting to Jurors, Bias, Damages, Products Liability Litigation / /

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

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