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(formerly the Persuasive Litigator blog)

Bias

Pretty Persuasion: Treat Party or Witness Attractiveness as Part of Credibility 

Adapting to Jurors, Bias / /

By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm: It’s probably one of the most unfair biases, but also one of the most ingrained. Human beings prefer attractive people over unattractive people, and that is likely tied to our evolutionary biology. Referred to sometimes as “lookism” the bias confers a number of advantages on those who are socially perceived to […]

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Assessing Your Jurors’ Politics? Look for Conspiracy Thinking As Well

Adapting to Jurors, Bias / /

By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm: When it comes to sizing up our potential jurors, we are used to looking at their politics. Both conventional wisdom and practical experience suggest that conservatives are more likely to prioritize individual responsibility while liberals focus on social responsibility. That means that in many cases — not all, but many —

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The Lesson of Trump’s (First) Indictment: Look at Both the Legality and the Importance of the Claim

Bias, Public Perception / /

By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm: The news cycle has been drowning in it. For the first time in history, a former U.S. President faces criminal charges. Donald Trump was arraigned this past Tuesday on April 4th, after being indicted on 34 charges involving the falsification of business records in furtherance of another crime, all surrounding payments

The Lesson of Trump’s (First) Indictment: Look at Both the Legality and the Importance of the Claim Read More »

Debias on Hindsight

Bias / /

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Defendants in civil cases are often plagued by the reality that the “should have,” “could have,” and “would have,” aspects of the reasonable care all exist in the realm of hindsight. The tendency to believe that negative consequences are more knowable and preventable when viewed through the lens of a

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Save the Strikes: ASTC’s Research-Based Case Against Prohibiting the Peremptories

Bias, Uncategorized, Voir Dire / /

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The last few years have seen a societal turn toward identifying and addressing systems that institutionalize discrimination based on race, gender, and other demographic traits. That attention is obviously a good thing. But one issue that has been caught up in that trend has been a call to eliminate the

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Treat Anti-Corporatism as a Bipartisan Bias

Bias, Commercial Litigation / /

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: For many years, the reliable bet was that a deep distrust of corporations, and what we might call an anti-corporate bias in a litigation context, is a left-wing phenomenon. While conservatives might generally hew to the sentiment behind the adage that “What’s good for General Motors is good for America,” the

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