Your Trial Message

Your Trial Message

(formerly the Persuasive Litigator blog)

Damages

Aim Your Damages, And Your Case, at “The Golden Mean”

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Aristotle, the original philosopher of communication, wrote in The Nicomachean Ethics about “the Golden Mean, ” or the idea that virtue is often a happy medium between two vices (for example, courage is the virtue wedged between the vices of recklessness on the one hand, and cowardice on the other).   More […]

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When Arguing Damages, “Drop Anchor” Even in Murky Waters

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – This blog frequently covers recent psychological or communications research bearing on legal persuasion, and an important question is how well results hold up when leaving the laboratory and entering the courtroom.  One example is the phenomenon of damage “anchoring,” or the advantage gained when one side offers an ad damnum number as a starting point for jury deliberations. 

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Spot the Jurors Who Feel Entitled to Award Higher 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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A Mixture of Justice and Revenge: Target Juror Psychology in Awarding Damages

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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