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(formerly the Persuasive Litigator blog)

Bias

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

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. Read More »

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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In Malpractice Litigation, Account for Jurors’ Motive to Trust the Doctor

Adapting to Jurors, Bias, Professional Malpractice Litigation / /

By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – There is a pattern in medical malpractice litigation: people want to trust their doctors. This pattern is something observed in our own experience, in human psychology, and in attitudes toward malpractice trials. Plaintiffs only win when jurors are able to overcome that trust. The best thing that doctor-defendants have

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Convert Your Conspiracy Theorists: Research Shows it Can Be Done

Adapting to Jurors, Bias, Strategy / /

By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Those who count on the human ability to prioritize reason and evidence over unshakable conviction — and all participants in the litigation process ought to count themselves in that group — should take note of the persistence of questions over the President’s place of birth, and the sad take-away

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