By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Imagine this messaging challenge: Your case isn’t a personal injury case, where there is a discrete moment you’re asking jurors to evaluate. Instead, it is a commercial case, where there is a profusion of details, memos, and meetings, each like individual flakes in a snowstorm. In order to make it […]
Make Events Meaningful by Inviting Counterfactuals Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The notion of rule of law has taken a beating recently. The outcry from those opposed to the Supreme Court decision on healthcare — in many ways a flip side of the reaction that occurred in response to the Bush v. Gore decision that ended the 2000 presidential election recount —
Address Fundamental Skepticism on Rule of Law Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Stories require more than sequence. They require a sense of place, a tone, and a texture. Even when told without prepared images or video, a good story requires language that helps the mind “see” and not just comprehend the action. There is one study that perfectly captures this point (Tversky
Talk to the Eyes: If It Can’t Be Visualized, It’s Not a Story Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: If you are like me, you have grown tired of hearing that sublime tautology of a catch phrase, “It is what it is.” I want to shout in response, “Of course it is! What else would it be?” But the expression perfectly captures the attitude of some litigators toward analogies.
Fight Fire With Fire (And Fight Bad Analogies With Better Ones) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Your opening is a story, I’ve written before, about what happened and about what kind of case this is. The closing is a different story, not about what happened, but what is about to happen: deliberations and a verdict, hopefully in your favor. It makes little sense to go all
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: For once, a social science concept that comes with an easy to understand label! “Low effort thinking” refers to a mental approach or habit that serves as a short-cut in lieu of a more systematic or careful analysis. In the spirit of full disclosure, though, the concept is sometimes dressed up
Complex Case? Beware of “Low Effort Thinkers” Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: I’ve sometimes been asked, “what is the effect of the attorney’s gender to a jury?” It would sure be nice to be able to reply, “it doesn’t matter — a good attorney is a good attorney.” But what does the data say? Last week, the Forbes-affiliated “She Negotiates” blog reported on a survey
Female Attorneys: Expect (But Don’t Accept) a Subtle Bias in the Courtroom 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: “Whatever happened to causation,” defendants sometimes wonder. For example, a drug company is targeted for inadequate testing, and for attempting to hide research showing a statistical link to cancer. The Plaintiff took the drug, and now has cancer. For many jurors, that would prompt them to break out the check-book: “Liability established… Lets talk
Mind the Gap: Stop Jurors From Jumping Straight From Liability to Damages Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: If that commercial for the knife set just laid it all out at the start, it would sound like this: “Okay, here is the deal, you get the knives, the storage block, an extra set of steak knives, free sharpening for life, and free shipping if you call in the next hour.”
But Wait, There’s More: Build Your Case Over Time, Instead of All at Once Read More »