Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

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Confirmation bias is the tendency to search, favor, or recall information in a way that confirms one’s own beliefs or hypotheses.

This tendency also causes the person to give less consideration to alternative possibilities. Studies have shown that confirmation biases are not limited to collections of evidence. For example, two people may have the same information, but the way in which they interpret the information could be biased.

Lawyers and clients are prone to the confirmation bias, resulting in the selective processing and weighing of information. Once a legal strategy is decided upon, often dictated by the goal or outcome sought, conflicting or disconfirming information is discounted or dismissed.

Conviction and confidence are substituted for objectivity and vulnerability. Lawyers and disputants press forward on a course of action dictated by the law, economics, principles, or goals.