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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The presence of  more than one party on the defense side of the courtroom can create an interesting dynamic. In the heat of negative evaluation, it might be psychologically comfortable for some defendants to have company, creating the feeling that “we’re all in the same boat.” And, more practically, it can create

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: When advice is given on a general subject, it can sometimes sound a bit like platitudes. And, as with platitudes, it often seems like one cancels out the other. “Look before you leap,” the saying goes, but, “He who hesitates is lost.” The advice given to a witness before testimony

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Given the nature of my involvement in cases, I’m not often present in the courtroom when the jury receives its instructions. But I remember one time that I was. As the judge read out the sections focusing specifically on the credibility of witnesses, I thought, “This is deeply misleading…if not

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: As a litigation consultant with an academic background, I am in a unique position: I stay abreast of the social science research (the blog schedule makes sure of that), but I also spend my days working with trial lawyers on the practical needs of cases going to trial. From that

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Her key witness is still on the stand. Direct examination went well, and now the other side’s cross-examination is just wrapping up. Standing up for redirect, the attorney looks at her notes: Coming out of cross, there’s a pretty long list of concessions, misleading answers, or unclear implications, and all of them need

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: How do you protect yourself against the nasty flu that is going around this winter? Well, you can partially protect yourself with a vaccination. Introducing your body to a weakened form of the bug helps to build up your ability to resist when exposed to the real bug later on.

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Persuading a group that will then go off and deliberate is a unique persuasive setting. In a way, it can be called ‘Second Order’ persuasion, because it isn’t just about the person being convinced in the moment they’re hearing your case, it is about them being both convinced in that

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Sometimes advocacy is 100 percent: Everything your client did, literally everything, was right. But other times — more often I would say, if we’re being honest — there is something that isn’t perfect. The defendant made some mistakes in how it handled the situation, or the plaintiff missed some steps when