Anecdotes are to analogies as…
What makes for an effective anecdote? In health research, good anecdotes are considered an exercise in generalization: “We have generalized from the data to the anecdote; we can generalize from the anecdote about the data and generalize to other contexts and populations.”[1] Applying this to a trial setting, your party’s narrative or case theme might […]
Information Contamination in Bifurcated Trials: Friend or Foe?
Do you want the good news or the bad news first? We are all familiar with this phrase, and when we use it, it is because we are hoping the bad news will be mitigated by the good news. In other words, we want the positive feeling from the good news to spill over and […]
Who Got the Ball Rolling? Jurors and Causal Chains
When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, many Americans asked—how did this happen? Some attributed it to James Comey’s decision to re-open the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mails just days earlier, while others looked farther back in time to Trump’s success on the Apprentice. This investigation into what led Trump to become President exemplifies […]
The Importance Of Judicial Temperament
President Obama’s recent search for a Supreme Court nominee has served to underline something every trial lawyer already knows: Judicial temperament is important. President Obama described Judge Merrick Garland as “a thoughtful, fair-minded judge who follows the law,” who has “shown a rare ability to…persuade colleagues with wide-ranging judicial philosophies to sign on to his opinions” […]