By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Litigation and trial have a long history of being seen as a kind of logical and verbal combat. Movies and popular culture have contributed to this view that attorneys are going to war on behalf of their clients, and the only holds that are barred are those that are barred […]
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It’s Christmas as I write this, so how about some seasonally appropriate social science. There is a study (Merckelbach & van de Venezuela, 2001), a little old at this point, but quite interesting in its implications. Participants came into a lab in order to listen to white noise over headphones.
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Mock trials, and other forms of pretrial juror research, like focus groups, are increasingly common. Particularly in complex or high-stakes litigation, it makes sense to road-test your case in a safe setting. What you learn can help you arrive at a reasonable resolution pretrial, or can help you prepare for
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Next time you’re in a public place — an airport, a hotel lobby, a train, or a shopping mall — stop and take a moment to look around at the other people in the space. How many of them are staring down into their hand-held mobile phone? Most of them?
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: On the path from the initial dispute to the ultimate disposition of a case, there are many forks in the road. In choosing whether to take the path of settlement or to continue on to trial, one of the most trusted advisors is, and should be, the trial lawyer. After
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: In my line of work, I find myself on my feet giving presentations quite often: marketing talks, CLE seminars, strategy sessions. I prepare for those opportunities pretty extensively, but here is one thing I don’t do as part of that preparation: I don’t sit and review my notes. I do prepare notes,
When Preparing to Present, Talk, Don’t Read Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Nodding your head up and down means “Yes.” At least in our culture it does. And world travelers will know that this one thankfully translates to nearly all other countries and cultures as well. There are exceptions, like one country I visited a couple of times on consulting trips: Bulgaria.
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: When an audience decides whether someone is credible or not, what do they look for? To a large degree, they look for confidence. In some ways, confidence can be viewed as performed credibility. Someone who is telling the truth is confident. Someone who is winning is confident. Of course, we know that
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Persuasion is often a matter of overcoming barriers and, in the courtroom, those barriers can be very real. The wall of the jury box is a physical analogy for the differences in class, age, race, education, and many other factors that can separate the fact finders from the attorneys, the
Use “You” (Not “I” or “One” or “They”) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The cooler sat in the courtroom throughout the trial. A 40.5 gallon Igloo fishing cooler, it was a key piece of evidence in the murder trial of an attorney, Tom Capano, charged with killing his lover who was the Delaware Governor’s scheduling secretary. A recent story in Delaware Online focuses on one of
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