By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Crowds can be scary things. At a debate this past Monday (September 9th), Republican Presidential candidate, Ron Paul, was asked if his stance against government mandated health insurance would dictate denying care to a hypothetical man who found himself in a coma without the benefit of catastrophic health insurance. “Are you […]
Protect Your Jury From the Poison of the Crowd Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – With Standard & Poor’s recent decision to deny the U.S. a AAA credit rating, many Americans are feeling a little downgraded about now. For most of us, I can hope, that is a temporary feeling. But for others, especially in these economic times, it is a more constant aspect of their lives. These Americans,
Beware of Jurors Who Feel Downgraded Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – “The men totally dominated the discussion the last time,” said JoAnn Chiakulas, the hold-out juror in Rod Blagojevich’s first corruption trial, “and a lot of the women were not treated very nicely.” The former governor’s newer jury consisted of eleven women and one man you might expect a change in that department. But this second jury deliberated
That’s Right, The Women Are Smarter: Pay Attention to Your Jury’s Social Intelligence Read More »
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – We are often asked, “What kind of jurors do we want for our case?” and sometimes that question can veer toward demographics: “Do we want women or men?” In personal injury litigation, for example, the lawyers trying the case might suspect that women will show more compassion and sympathy toward an injured party,
Don’t Count on Gender Differences When it Comes to Compassion Read More »
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Last week, in part one of this post, I wrote about the increasing tendency for jurors to express irritation and insecurity at the prospect of serving out their jury duty, a greater proportion of hardship claims, and some recent research showing that the resulting changes in the jury pool could lead to
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – The situation has been noted with a surprising frequency: Instead of filing in quietly to fulfill their civic duty, prospective jurors in voir dire have expressed a deep frustration over the litigation process and a deep concern over serving. Most recently, an article in the National Law Journal noted this
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – This post is focused on bulking-up your ability to target high-risk jurors and performance enhancing your voir dire. So speaking of steroids, let’s start with Barry Bonds. Jury selection for the perjury trial of the former San Francisco Giants power-hitter, charged with lying to a grand jury over steroid use, starts
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Attorneys engaged in the process of jury selection have always been eager to uncover as much information as the judge allows through questionnaires and oral examination in court. For that reason, it isn’t surprising to most potential jurors that the lawyers are trying to get a sense of any strongly
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – So your case is in, your jury is ready to start deliberating, and you feel pretty confident that at least the majority of your jurors favor your side of the case. Should you feel safe? Of course not, because the verdict isn’t in the hands of the majority as much as it is in
Pay Close Attention to the Big Mouths in Voir Dire Read More »
By: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Watching the Wizard of Oz recently with my three (and a half!)-year-old daughter, we came to the familiar scene of the fearless Toto interrupting the Wizard’s speech by pulling back the curtain on a man furiously working levers and wheels. When Dorothy and company ignore the instruction to “pay
In Jury Selection, Pay All Kinds of Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain Read More »