By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: So you’re picking an expert witness for your case. What kind of person do you want? Someone with the highest credentials from the best institutions? Someone with a lot of on-the-ground experience in this area? Someone who is able to teach effectively? Someone who just comes across as an approachable
Experts: Complete the Credibility Checklist Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The Reptile approach to trying plaintiffs’ cases has been around for a decade. It is now expected that many of those seeking damages in products, medical liability, and other personal injury cases, will use a persuasive approach that attempts to awaken jurors’ reptilian fear response and instinct to protect the
Careful Defendants, the ‘Reverse Reptile’ Could Be a Boomerang Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The witness on the stand pauses before answering, then looks briefly up and to the right while giving a response. While listening to the next question, she places a finger over her lips, angles her head slightly, and raises one shoulder a bit higher than the other. Does any of
Beware of Nonverbal Pseudoscience Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: We know that once jurors make it through the gauntlet of jury selection and find themselves seated in the courtroom’s jury box, they’ll often be ennobled by their task and take it quite seriously. But consider the mindset of the mock juror. They’ve come in for a one-day project in a
Share the Stakes in Your Mock Trial Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Twas the night before trial, when all through the office, No settlement was stirring, so the war room was raucous; The filings were all filed with the court clerk with care, In hopes that the judge would finally be fair. Trial counsel then nestled all snug in their
Twas the Night Before Trial Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It has become commonplace to note that, as a country, we seem to be more divided than ever – divided on politics, education, rural-urban living, religion, you name it. But topics relating to the ways we generate energy and the extent to which we should protect the environment in the
Expect Common Ground on Green Energy Attitudes Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: So the case is complex. Maybe it involves a tricky multi-stage legal question. Or maybe it requires understanding some arcane point on patents. Or perhaps it requires grappling with the workings of an unfamiliar technology. In these cases, is the jury up to the task? It can be tempting to
Don’t Fret, Your Jury Can Handle Some Complexity Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The idea of something being a “Legal Fiction” is that it is treated as true for the purposes of the law, but it is not literally true. “A corporation is a person” is perhaps one of the best known of these legal fictions, and one that generates passionate disagreements. As
Question the Legal Fiction of the ‘Reasonable Person’ Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The idea of a courtroom trial is that it is a sealed system. The fact-finders arrive in a neutral state of mind, they receive and review only what is vetted and presented in court, and then they deliberate to a verdict without any outside influence. We know that this sealed
Understand Your Jurors’ Online Reality Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Once you’re aware of “dehumanization” as a feature of communication, you start to see it everywhere. Characterizing a group as less than human in one or more ways is often part of the rhetorical landscape on the most divisive issues. If economic or political migrants, for example, are viewed as animals,