Uncategorized

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Our court system is all about law, obviously, but sometimes the legal field intersects with research fields. Two points where the law overlaps with research methods are the use of scientific testimony and the conduct of pretrial research projects like mock trials or focus groups. In both settings, a failure to appreciate […]

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Some witnesses approach their deposition or trial testimony with unmitigated dread, while others treat it as a walk in the park. While the scrutiny and possible entrapment can be terrifying to some, it just doesn’t register for others. We would like to think that the happy medium is a point

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: I’ve shared on these virtual pages before that I am, at a slightly advanced age, learning to play guitar. From my early efforts I can report that, though I’ve advised on many patent cases, nothing I’ve encountered is as complicated as music theory for the guitar. I thought learning the

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The time has finally come for the first votes to be cast in the presidential primaries: the Iowa caucus. That contest has historically proven to be somewhat unpredictable, even to pollsters, and with tight races on both sides, that trend is likely to continue. At this stage, public opinion trackers

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: If you’ve seen the old film Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, then you remember one of my favorite scenes where the teacher, played by Ben Stein, attempts to cover U.S. economic history to a group of students who could not be more bored or disengaged. And they can hardly be blamed since

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: One common piece of advice given to fact witnesses during deposition preparation meetings is that it isn’t their role to instruct opposing counsel on everything they ought to know: “Witness, Don’t Teach.” I’ve resisted the temptation to set that advice to the music of Madonna’s “Papa, Don’t Preach” song, but

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: “Every time I think about those kids it gets me mad,” President Obama said, while talking about the first grade victims in the Newtown massacre of 2012. Only his face read “sad” rather than “mad,” as he gave a statement earlier this week on his new executive actions to reduce gun violence.

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It is every parent’s lament: Time is going by so quickly…It seems like only yesterday…They grow up so fast. Of course, much of this is what I’d call a “retrospective illusion.” It is only when we are looking back on the past that the days, months, or years seem to

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Our stories like the number three: There are three little pigs and three bears, as well as Harry, Ron and Hermione. Our movies like threes, as Star Wars now embarks on the last of its three trilogies. Our advertisements like the number three as well: the iPad 2 is “thinner, lighter, faster.”

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Consider this scenario: two swimmers are drowning, and the even greater problem is that they are so far apart that the single lifeguard cannot rescue both. Instead the lifeguard must choose, because trying to save both could end in saving neither. Logically, we would say that in this scenario, the lifeguard