Better Judgment, Better Outcomes: Eliminating Cognitive Bias in Legal Decision-Making

Cognitive bias shapes how attorneys evaluate evidence, advise clients, and make decisions at every stage of a case, often without any awareness that it is happening. Scott B. Cohen and Michael P. Rolland examine six bias patterns with direct consequences for legal practice: confirmation bias, narrative fallacy, binary thinking, attribution bias, loss aversion, and experience bias. Drawing on documented cases including the Exonerated Five, the program connects each bias to specific legal settings, from evidence evaluation and case theory development to mediation and attorney-client advising. Attendees will leave with practical debiasing strategies, including structured deliberation, premortems, and falsification frameworks, to reduce bias-driven error in their practice.