By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Who is a juror? Experienced legal persuaders know a juror isn’t just a passive receptacle for your arguments, and isn’t just an instrument, a route or obstacle to your preferred verdict in the case. Instead, a juror is fully human, a subject not an object, and possessed of their own particular […]
Address Identity and Not Just Belief Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: At the end of a two-week trial last Spring, in the case of Montone v. City of Jersey City, a federal jury awarded nine former city police officers $2.17 million in a dispute over promotions. Three weeks later, counsel for the city’s former police chief receives a letter from one of the jurors:
Don’t Gag the Jury (After the Trial) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: There is often something distinctive about the person bringing a case. Whether they are the victim in a discrimination or harassment case, a whistle-blower in an employment case, or a number of other case types, their act of coming forward has marked the individual as outside the social circle of
Account for Social Exclusion in Employment and Whistle-blower Cases Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Legal persuaders who want to know their venue are interested in polls. They keep a finger on the national pulse, and especially on the way that pulse is registering at the local level. In addition to helping you know your potential jurors, that data on public opinion can also serve
Know Your Venue: Polling Still Works Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a citizen to report to the district courthouse and sit in judgment on the disputes of strangers, it becomes vital for that citizen to remain independent of the passions, sympathies, persuasive techniques, and attorneys that the parties in dispute
Respect Jurors’ Declaration of Independence Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Conventional thinking about the two sides of the political spectrum in the United States has always held that both sides, liberals and conservatives alike, basically respect the democratic institutions of government, they just have different ideas about the policies that government should enact. In other words, both support the vehicle
Add Neo-Authoritarians to Your Political Spectrum Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: When your trial-bound case faces complexity, possible juror bias, or potential juror hardships — which is to say, when you have a trial-bound case — you could benefit from a supplemental juror questionnaire, particularly when the questionnaire is customized to the issues of the case and is administered and collected before
Don’t Ignore the Elephant: The Manafort Juror Questionnaire Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Lately, the nation has been divided, again, on a critical question of public policy. And, again, that division reveals some stark differences in the ways each side views the facts and understands the values at stake. This time, the issue involves the policy of forced family separation of undocumented immigrants,
Expect Jurors to Blur Facts and Opinions Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: In the lead-up to a mock trial, the clients often and understandably hope for a win. After all, a win might help to steady their resolve and buttress their hopes heading into the courtroom. But you know what is even more useful than that? Actually learning something to help make
Make it Hard on Yourself: Eight Ways to Make Your Mock Trial a ‘Worst-Case’ Test Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: How do you spot a racist? Or, to be more on point, in a legal case about racial discrimination, or another case where racial biases would matter to the assessment of the case, the parties, or the witnesses, how do you recognize potential racial animus in order to inform your cause
Attitudes on Race: Consider that the Dog Whistle May No Longer Be Necessary Read More »