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(formerly the Persuasive Litigator blog)

Public Perception

Define “Reasonable Person” As Your Jurors’ Idealized Version of Themselves

Adapting to Jurors, Bias, Products Liability Litigation, Public Perception, Voir Dire / /

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Sometimes you come across a document that challenges your view of basic human goodness.  The stomach-churning Grand Jury Report relating to the Pennsylvania State football scandal is one such document.  What stands out, based on the allegations, is just how many times former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was caught.  In locker rooms, workout […]

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Yes, Virginia, There is a CSI Effect: Account for It in Your Science Case

Adapting to Jurors, Public Perception / /

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The news media pounced on it, but the scholars said it didn’t exist.  The “CSI Effect,” or the tendency for high technology crime dramas to fuel a juror expectation for sophisticated investigations and definite answers, entered the popular and media imagination as a powerful effect that could stymie prosecution (by creating unrealistic evidentiary

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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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Take a Lesson from the Casey Anthony Verdict: It Is the Story, and Not Just the Evidence

Adapting to Jurors, Narrative, Public Perception / /

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Casey Anthony was sentenced today to four years for lying to authorities with credit for the substantial time she has already served.  Instead of facing life, or possibly death, for the murder of her daughter Caylee, she will be free as of next Sunday (July 17th), though it is hard to use the word

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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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Beware of the Jury’s “Filter Bubble”

Adapting to Jurors, Public Perception, Social Media / /

By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – You may not have heard the phrase “filter bubble,” but it refers to an internet phenomena, as well as to some basic psychology on how we receive and process information.  More fully explained in the video clip below, Eli Pariser coined the phrase to refer to the individual separation (that is the ‘bubble’

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Don’t Defend A Strawman (And Don’t Attack One Either)

Public Perception, Strategy / /

By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – When the public answers current polling on the health insurance reform law, only a minority of 46 percent will say that they support it.  But when attention turns to the details of the plan, a majority supports the individual elements.  Even opposition to the dreaded “individual mandate” falls to just 35

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Know When to Take the Offensive in Defense of Your Product: Lessons from Taco Bell

Products Liability Litigation, Public Perception / /

By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Imagine this:  you’re sued for making false claims about your product.  What do you do?  Issue a terse public statement and hunker down for discovery?  Not Taco Bell.  When an Alabama law firm filed a class action accusing the company of using meat filling with only 36% beef, the company responded

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Aim Your Product Warnings at “FYI” and Not Just “CYA”

Products Liability Litigation, Public Perception / /

By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – A warning that calls attention to a product’s potential danger is obviously an important part of a company’s litigation prevention and defense.  But according to one recent statistic, a substantial portion of the public, and potential jury pool, may be a bit cynical on the question of whether warnings are designed to educate or

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