By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Mediators have a delicate job. They know it isn’t their role to praise or blame a party. It isn’t their role to take sides. To do so means sacrificing their credibility and their effectiveness along with it. But the tougher question is whether a commitment to stick to facilitation, rather […]
Know When to Give Your Mediator a Voice: The Settlement Series, Part Three Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: There is a perspective on negotiations focusing on tactics, secret strategies, or tricks. The problem with this tricks-based approach is that once you have two sides who think they know the tricks – like “never make the first offer,” – then you’re headed for a stalemate faster than a game
Don’t Play Chicken With Your Case: The Settlement Series, Part Two Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: We all have an image in our heads of the way we expect cases to end: passionate presentations, gripping witness testimony, then a tense wait followed by the dramatic verdict. In the great majority of cases, however, the dispute will end not in a courtroom but in a conference room.
Break Through the Barriers: The Settlement Series, Part One Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: A Google search on the phrase “no comment” appearing in recent news yields thousands of hits — various individuals and organizations responding in time-honored fashion to some sort of crisis. Recently, for example, after CNN Analyst Roland Martin had his finger too close to the Tweet button during the Super
Don’t Say Nothing: The Limitations of “No Comment” as a Litigation Crisis Strategy Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Perceptions can be tricky. Take the picture above for example: If you’ll do something right now, I promise that you’ll be amazed. Stand up from in front of your monitor and step back about 15 feet from the computer, and you’ll see Albert Einstein turn into Marilyn Monroe. Seriously! The image doesn’t change of
When it Comes to Bad Defense Venues, Treat Perception as Reality Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Sometimes the bandwagon isn’t a bad place to be. If your case embraces what is likely to be the popular position (e.g., the big company is to blame or the accused is guilty), then a tidal wave of opinion reaching a swift conclusion, and sweeping the doubters along in its wake,
Help Jurors Stay Off the Bandwagon Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Many hold that stories are essential to effective communication, and I am among them. Especially in litigation, there is a natural role for stories as a glue holding together the facts and the law, the ethics and the evidence, the logic and the persuasion. I believe that and apply it in my
Don’t Put “Story” on Too High a Pedestal Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: At a conference, I once met another consultant who actually claimed that his mock trial findings would line up with actual trial results with a definite confidence interval of, he said, plus or minus five percent. It was one of those conference moments when you realize that you urgently need
Don’t Be Entranced By Statistical Claims From Mock Trial Research Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: As we turn the page on a new year, it is a good time to look back on the trials of 2011. The year had its share of high profile cases from the ‘second times a charm’ prosecution of Rod Blagojevich, to the conviction of Dr. Conrad Murray, and even the grand jury phases
Apply “Social Listening” To Your Case Read More »