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Hiding the Elephant: How the Psychological Techniques of Magicians Can Be Used to Manipulate Witnesses at Trial
December 17, 2015
Law is not justice and a trial is not a scientific inquiry into truth. A trial is the resolution of a dispute.—Edison Haines The...
December 17, 2015
Law is not justice and a trial is not a scientific inquiry into truth. A trial is the resolution of a dispute.—Edison Haines The...
Feeling Like An Expert Can Make You Closed-Minded
December 16, 2015
What happens to us as we accrue knowledge and experience, as we become experts in a field? Competence follows. Effortlessness follows (pdf). But certain downsides can follow too. We reported recently on how experts are vulnerable to an overclaiming error – falsely feeling familiar with things that seem true of a domain but aren’t. Now a new paper in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology explores how feelings of expertise can lead us to be more dogmatic towards new ideas. * * * People’s...
December 16, 2015
What happens to us as we accrue knowledge and experience, as we become experts in a field? Competence follows. Effortlessness follows (pdf). But certain downsides can follow too. We reported recently on how experts are vulnerable to an overclaiming error – falsely feeling familiar with things that seem true of a domain but aren’t. Now a new paper in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology explores how feelings of expertise can lead us to be more dogmatic towards new ideas. * * * People’s...
Recent Trends Impacting Enforcement of Arbitration Agreements
December 16, 2015
In Atalese v. U.S. Legal Services Group, L.P., 99 A.3d 306 (N.J. 2014), cert. denied, 135 S. Ct. 2804 (2015), the plaintiff,...
December 16, 2015
In Atalese v. U.S. Legal Services Group, L.P., 99 A.3d 306 (N.J. 2014), cert. denied, 135 S. Ct. 2804 (2015), the plaintiff,...
Of Reptiles and Velcro: The Brain’s Negativity Bias and Persuasion
December 16, 2015
BAD IS STRONGER THAN GOOD Current thinking in cognitive psychology is that people (both adults and children) display what is called a “negativity bias.” One group of researchers concluded that “adults spend more time looking at negative than at positive stimuli, perceive negative stimuli to be more complex than positive ones, and form more complex cognitive representations of negative than of positive stimuli.” This section of the article first examines the evidence in social science...
December 16, 2015
BAD IS STRONGER THAN GOOD Current thinking in cognitive psychology is that people (both adults and children) display what is called a “negativity bias.” One group of researchers concluded that “adults spend more time looking at negative than at positive stimuli, perceive negative stimuli to be more complex than positive ones, and form more complex cognitive representations of negative than of positive stimuli.” This section of the article first examines the evidence in social science...
Burford Capital Backs Lawsuit Against Volkswagen
December 15, 2015
Burford Capital has announced it is giving additional funding to law firm Hausfeld to take on Volkswagen AG after the emissions scandal. In September, the German car giant admitted it installed "defeat devices" in millions of diesel vehicles around the world. The devices would detect when the car was being tested for emissions and adjust the its operation to comply with emissions standards. The announcement came after Burford made €30m (£21.1m) in financing available to Hausfeld for its clients'...
December 15, 2015
Burford Capital has announced it is giving additional funding to law firm Hausfeld to take on Volkswagen AG after the emissions scandal. In September, the German car giant admitted it installed "defeat devices" in millions of diesel vehicles around the world. The devices would detect when the car was being tested for emissions and adjust the its operation to comply with emissions standards. The announcement came after Burford made €30m (£21.1m) in financing available to Hausfeld for its clients'...
Kiser: The Emotionally Attentive Lawyer: Balancing the Rule of Law with the Realities of Human Behavior
December 15, 2015
This article explores the tension between the law and emotional intelligence and suggests that emotional intelligence is unjustifiably...
December 15, 2015
This article explores the tension between the law and emotional intelligence and suggests that emotional intelligence is unjustifiably...
Justices Rebuke California Courts (Again) For Refusal To Enforce Arbitration Agreement
December 15, 2015
With its last opinion of 2015, the Justices added DIRECTV v. Imburgia to the ever-growing line of decisions reversing state court refusals to enforce arbitration agreements. The particular topic here is classwide arbitration. Three years ago, after California courts refused to enforce provisions in arbitration agreements that barred class arbitration (on the ground that the provisions were unconscionable), a closely divided court in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion disagreed, holding that the Federal...
December 15, 2015
With its last opinion of 2015, the Justices added DIRECTV v. Imburgia to the ever-growing line of decisions reversing state court refusals to enforce arbitration agreements. The particular topic here is classwide arbitration. Three years ago, after California courts refused to enforce provisions in arbitration agreements that barred class arbitration (on the ground that the provisions were unconscionable), a closely divided court in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion disagreed, holding that the Federal...
Patent Lawsuits Flooded East Texas Courts in November
December 14, 2015
Businesses and individuals filed a record 851 patent infringement lawsuits in November – more than half of them in the federal...
December 14, 2015
Businesses and individuals filed a record 851 patent infringement lawsuits in November – more than half of them in the federal...
Clawback Suits Are Not Categorically Exempt from Arbitration under FAA
December 14, 2015
On February 10, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that clawback claims brought by court-appointed...
December 14, 2015
On February 10, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that clawback claims brought by court-appointed...
Psychology and Lawyering: Coalescing the Field
December 14, 2015
There is some tendency, with the case method, for the study of law to be something like the study of chess or the analysis of a bridge hand. When analyzing the law in intricate detail, it may be hard to keep in mind the vital fact that the problems really relate to people . . . ." Erwin N. Griswold Although, historically, some may have thought of lawyers as walking talking brains, more recently we have seen increasing recognition that law is a people profession. After all, lawyers spend a substantial...
December 14, 2015
There is some tendency, with the case method, for the study of law to be something like the study of chess or the analysis of a bridge hand. When analyzing the law in intricate detail, it may be hard to keep in mind the vital fact that the problems really relate to people . . . ." Erwin N. Griswold Although, historically, some may have thought of lawyers as walking talking brains, more recently we have seen increasing recognition that law is a people profession. After all, lawyers spend a substantial...
