Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips

When I was a college student at St. Martins University in Olympia many years ago I took a course in logic. The course explored common devices used in argument that are invalid and constitute logical fallacies. The recent headlines regarding President Donald Trump’s telephone call to the president of the Ukraine brings this to mind. Without taking sides let’s use this as an example of what is and is not logical reasoning. I’m going to use the Republican supporters of…

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The September 2019 King County bar bulletin featured an article by Thomas M. O’Toole, PhD, who is a jury consultant at www.soundjuryconsulting.com. Dr. O’Toole writes about a research studies in the article. One study was done at Duke University. Students were offered two samples of beer. Both were Budweiser, but the students were told that one beer was a standard commercial beer and the other was called “MIT brew.” Unknown to participants this beer had been treated with drops of…

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In psychology there is a principal known as the “Dunning – Kruger effect.” It refers to the psychological phenomenon which leads people to overestimate their ability because they have failed to grasp how much they really don’t know about the subject. They think they are well-informed and understand when in fact they don’t fully understand. People, lawyers in particular, too quickly believe, that as intelligent people, they have fully grasped a new concept which has been presented to them. Often,…

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