By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm:
In a recent jury selection — and, pretty much, in every jury selection — I have watched as several on the panel would share various connections, attitudes, or experiences that could quite reasonably point to that person holding a bias in the case, before confidently declaring that they could “set it aside,” and
Latest from Your Trial Message
Account for a Partisan Frame on a Corporate Scandal
By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm: In a Los Angeles Civil trial, jurors recently heard arguments over whether some of the largest and most powerful companies in the world engaged in a secret plot — in an echo of the tobacco litigation of the 1980’s — to hook their users. The decision jurors are being asked to
Expect Justice to be Served Online as Well
By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm: As the world’s main social media companies are in a California courtroom for a bellwether trial to contest claims that they are facilitating online addictions, courtrooms themselves have flirted and tested online applications, but have thus far mostly resisted the full online embrace. Online engagement may be effective in luring teens
Defendants, Look Out for Anti-Corporate Conspiracists on Your Jury
By Dr. Ava Zwolinski and Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm: Americans have long viewed large organizations, both governmental and corporate, with considerable skepticism. In civil litigation, jurors will often perceive corporate defendants through an interpretive lens colored by preconceived biases against corporations (e.g., they’re guided solely by profit, and they harm individuals for their own gain) as
Don’t Reduce Jurors to Their Political Identities (But Don’t Ignore It Either)
By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm: Whether we are talking about Minnesota or Greenland, or a score of other contested narratives within the field of political conflict, the role of a person’s ideological and partisan leaning has probably never been more salient than it is now. The perception, at least, is that one’s orientation doesn’t just predict
Defense, Tell a Story on Damages
By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm: When it comes to persuasive courtroom communication, there is a three-word piece of advice that is drilled into the marrow of every experienced litigator: Tell a story! Trial lawyers don’t go far without internalizing that advice. When it comes to applying the advice, however, most defendants will apply it most naturally and
Keep Your Jurors (and Mock Jurors) Human
By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm:
The courtroom had all the usual elements: oak paneling, parties, a judge, a jury box, a flag. Only in the jury box, instead of live human jurors, there were three large digital monitors on which appeared the “jurors” for this case: ChatGPT (OpenAI), Grok (xAI), and Claude (Anthropic). This event, held
Address the Off-Stage Character in Your Trial Story: Settlement
By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm:
Supporters of America’s traditional jury trials like the idea of a system of conflict resolution based on evidence, reasoning, and the public’s judgment. Those supporters, and I include myself in that group, believe that something is being lost when nearly all disputes that are candidates for such a system are instead
Have a Definite (Explicit and Quantified) Reason for Your Strikes
By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm
As counsel scans the panel of potential jurors, one might stand out based on the gut level thought: a “that guy just makes me nervous” kind of reaction. Basing your strike decisions on a “bad feeling” that lies outside of articulable factors of experience or attitude certainly isn’t unknown. But it
Oral Voir Dire: Know Your Purpose
By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm:
How effectively does counsel and the court question potential jurors as part of the selection process? New research in the journal Language in Society (Clayman & Fox, 2025) provides some additional perspective on that question. The two authors, coming from the academic perspective of conversation analysis, reviewed transcripts from more than 100