Mock trial

A Mock Trial is an act or imitation trial. It is similar to a moot court, but mock trials simulate lower-court trials, while moot court simulates appellate court hearings. Attorneys preparing for a real trial might use a mock trial consisting of volunteers as role players to test theories or experiment with each other. In a mock trial normal rules of court are often abbreviated in order to focus on particular parts of the trial. Mock Trial is also the name of an extracurricular program in which students participate in rehearsed trials to learn new skills and compete with each other. At some law schools, the term trial advocacy is used for the program. Various organizations, such as state bar associations, sponsor Mock Trial/trial advocacy competitions for middle school students, high school students, college students, and law students.

Interscholastic mock trials take place on three levels. High-school competitive mock trial has an annual national competition governed by National Mock Trial Championship, Inc.^[1] and the Constitutional Rights Foundation.^[2] The competition on the college circuit is governed by the American Mock Trial Association.^[3] The college circuit also has an online forum at Perjuries Mock Trial AMTA Forum.^[4] Finally, there is mock trial/trial advocacy at the Law School level such as the National Trial Competition hosted by the Texas Young Lawyers Association^[5] and the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Competition framework

Trial and competition information is sent out in summer to early fall (depending on the level) to each of the competing teams. This information consists of the charges and basis of the case, rules that must be followed, and affidavits of each of the testifying or potentially testifying witnesses.^[6] Additional information including documents, maps, and diagrams are often included to help teams understand the situation of the case. These can often be introduced at trial as exhibits.

Teams have to study and analyze this information and form their case by the time of competition, typically held in winter to early spring.^[7] Each state has its own case every year that is different than the national case. This means that the winners of the state competitions, who move on to nationals, must study and prepare a completely different case in time for the National High School Mock Trial Competition in May.^[8]

The teams consist of a maximum of eight official members.^[9] These eight members must be organized into two teams of six for the prosecution/plaintiff and defense sides. Both of these six-member sub teams consist of three attorneys and three witnesses.^[10]

Procedure

A student giving his closing argument during a mock trial

The mock trial begins with the judge entering the courtroom. The judge then gives out the instructions to the jury (about what they are to listen to). The judge then lets the prosecution or plaintiff give an opening statement followed by the opening statement of the defense. After the opening statements, examination of the witnesses begins. The prosecution/plaintiff calls their witnesses first. A student competitor attorney for the prosecution/plaintiff does a direct examination of the witness. Once the direct examination is complete, the opposing team may cross-examine the witness. After the cross-examination, if the first team chooses, they may redirect the witness and, likewise, the other team may do a re-cross after this. This process is repeated for the two remaining plaintiff witnesses. Once the prosecution/plaintiff has finished with their witnesses, the process is repeated with the defense witnesses, having the defense attorneys direct and the plaintiff attorneys cross-examine.^[10]

Once all of the witnesses have been examined, the trial moves to closing arguments. The prosecutor/plaintiff again goes first. After the defense finishes their closing argument, the plaintiff may give a rebuttal argument if they still have time remaining. In some competitions, the rebuttal is limited to the scope of the defense’s closing argument.^[10] Time limits are set at each level of competition to prevent the trials from running too long and to keep rounds of competition running smoothly.

Judging

Attorney evaluators give critique at the end of a mock trial competition.

There are several different ways that a mock trial can be judged. In one, the judges for scoring the mock trial consist of the presiding judge and two scoring judges, all of whom score the teams. In a second method, there are two scoring judges and the presiding judge, as in the first method, but the presiding judge does not score the teams, rather the judge simply votes or casts a ballot for one team or another.^[10] In yet another method of judging, there are three scoring judges and the presiding judge is not involved in the scoring of the teams.

The winning team is not necessarily the team that won the verdict in the traditional sense. Instead, evaluators score individual attorneys and witnesses on a 1-10 scale based on each stage of the trial. These consist of the opening statements for the plaintiff and defense, each of the witnesses’ testimony, direct and cross-examination by attorneys, and the closing statements for both sides. The team with the highest total number of points is often, but not always, the team that wins the judge's verdict. So, it is possible for the defendant to be found guilty or lose the case but for the defense team to still win the round.

Points can be deducted from a team’s score for testifying with information outside the scope of the mock trial materials and for unsportsmanlike conduct or abuse of objections.

Power Matching

In the first round of the tournament, all of the teams are randomly matched to compete with each other. After the first round of some tournaments, teams are “power matched” to go up against other teams with similar records (i.e. in the second round, a 1-0 team will be matched with another 1-0 team).^[10] If there is a tie in record, the judges will use the number of ballots and total points earned to decide the matching.^[10] This allows for teams to compete with other teams of similar skill.

National Championship Format

In the national championship format, which is also employed by invitationals across the country, the tournament is power matched through the last round. While this determines the strongest team at the tournament overall, it does not provide an accurate representation of 2nd, 3rd, 4th place teams, etc, because they might have lost multiple ballots to a strong team who placed first. ^[11]

Exceptions

Of course, there are practical exceptions to the theory of power matching. Tab room coordinators who are creating brackets for each round may deviate from the rules of power matching in order to 1. allow each team to alternate between prosecution/plaintiff and defense between rounds, 2. avoid two teams from the same school competing against each other (Maryland Rule), 3. avoid having a team compete against a team it played in a prior round. ^[12]

Power Protection

When tournaments are power protected, it means that the first rounds of competition are power matched as stated above. In the last round(s), however, the team with the strongest record is paired against the team with the weakest record. This ensures that the best teams do not knock each other out of the running for a rank. Rather, it's anticipated that the stronger team will win and protect their chance at a rank, while there is no harm done to the weaker team who is already out of reach of a trophy. Additionally, this method gives weaker teams exposure to stronger programs that they can learn from. ^[13]

Levels of competition

High school

A high school mock trial team in Illinois

The National High School Mock Trial Championship was begun in 1984.^[10] This first competition consisted of teams from Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.^[10] The competition since has grown and now is considered to be an All-State tournament. Each year, various participating states around the country take turns hosting the tournament. The 2010 Championship was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the National Mock Trial Board announced that Phoenix, Arizona will host in 2011. New York State does not participate in the national competition; rather, it has its own intrastate competition consisting of over 350 teams throughout the state. It follows similar rules to that of the national competition. New York has three levels of play, county competition, regional competition, and the finals, which is held in Albany, New York in May. The state of Maryland also does not compete in the National High School tournament, and thus has their own statewide mock trial competition similar to that of New York. New Jersey and North Carolina both pulled out of the competition following the 2005 season due to a refusal by the organization to accommodate an Orthodox Jewish team that had won New Jersey's state championship.^[14]

The mock trial program was started to allow high school students to experience the courtroom in a hands-on role. The mock trials are set up and structured just like a real court, bound by the same rules.^[15] This can help the students to know exactly what role each of the different people in a court (judges, lawyers, witnesses, etc.) do in the judicial system. Cases typically have to do with problems faced by teens, and will usually involve teenagers as witnesses.

College

On the inter-collegiate circuit, a mock trial team consists of three attorneys and three witnesses on each side of the case (plaintiff/prosecution and defense). The attorneys are responsible for delivering an opening statement, conducting direct and cross examinations of witnesses and delivering closing arguments. Witnesses are selected in a sports draft format from a pool of approximately eight to 10 available witnesses prior to the round. Typical draft orders are DPDPDP, but may vary substantially between cases. Judges are usually attorneys or coaches, and in some occasions, practicing judges. A tournament consists of four rounds, two on each side of the case, scored by two judges in each round.

Tournament competition

The season runs in two parts, the invitational season and the regular season. Invitational tournaments are held throughout the fall semester and into early spring across the country.

The regular season begins in late January, starting with regional tournaments. There are typically more than 500 teams spread across 22-23 regional tournaments. Each school is limited to two post-regional bids to the "Opening Round National Championships." There are no longer any direct bids from Regionals to the National Championship Tournament. 192 teams advance to the Opening Round Championship, which is held at eight different tournament sites. The top teams at each Opening Round Championship Tournament qualify for a berth in the National Championship Tournament. There are 48 total bids to the final tournament.

For 22 years, the National Championship Tournament was held in Des Moines, Iowa, the city in which collegiate mock trial began. The tournament left Iowa for the first time in 2007 when Stetson University in St. Petersburg, Florida hosted the Championship. The 2008 National Championship Tournament was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Since 2009, and for the foreseeable future, the Championship returns to Des Moines in odd-numbered years, while even-numbered years feature a different venue. The 2010 Championship was hosted by Rhodes College at courthouses in downtown Memphis, Tennessee. The 2012 Championship will return to Minneapolis.

Past championship results

On April 9, 2006, the University of Virginia beat Harvard University to win the National Championship.^[16] In what was the closest final round in AMTA history, the University of Virginia won the championship by a single point using a tiebreaker, after a three judge panel split with one judge choosing Virginia as the winner, one choosing Harvard, and one calling the round a draw. The University of Virginia's victory ended the recent run by UCLA, who had won the two previous national championships.

On April 15, 2007, the University of Virginia again defeated Harvard University to win the National Championship. This marked the first ever re-match of a previous year's final round. Virginia again won via a split decision, winning two of the three ballots in the final round. Virginia also became the 4th program to ever repeat as champions, joining UCLA, the University of Iowa, and Rhodes College, who accomplished this feat twice. Harvard University became the second program to be the runner up in consecutive years, joining University of Maryland, College Park as the only other program to accomplish this feat. Maryland however, had the distinction of losing to themselves in one of those two defeats. Hosted by Stetson University College of Law in St. Petersberg, Florida, this was the first year that the National Championship Tournament was held outside of Des Moines, Iowa.

On April 6, 2008, the University of Maryland prevailed over the George Washington University in a split-ballot decision (2-1). The tournament took place in St. Paul, Minnesota and was hosted by Hamline University. This was the University of Maryland's fifth National Championship giving them more total wins than any other university. Previously the University of Maryland was tied with Rhodes, each school winning four titles.

On April 19, 2009, Northwood University defeated the George Washington University 5-0 to claim its first National Championship.

On April 18, 2010, New York University defeated Harvard University 3-1-1 to win its first National Championship. This was Harvard's third championship round appearance in the last five years following its consecutive losses to the University of Virginia.

On April 17, 2011, University of California, Los Angeles defeated the defending National Champions New York University 4-1 to claim its third National Championship, the third-most in the history of the American Mock Trial Association. The 27th National Championship Tournament was hosted by Drake University Law School in Des Moines, Iowa.

The following is the list of winners of the National Championship Tournament, as well as the runners-up:

Year	Winner	Runner-Up
2011	University of California, Los Angeles	New York University
2010	New York University	Harvard University
2009	Northwood University	George Washington University
2008	University of Maryland, College Park	George Washington University
2007	University of Virginia	Harvard University
2006	University of Virginia	Harvard University
2005	University of California, Los Angeles	Georgia Institute of Technology
2004	University of California, Los Angeles	Columbia University
2003	University of Iowa	Howard University
2002	University of Iowa	Georgetown University
2001	Miami University (Ohio)	Rhodes College
2000	University of Maryland, College Park	University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
1999	Bellarmine University	Rhodes College
1998	University of Maryland, College Park	Bellarmine University
1997	Howard University	Rhodes College
1996	University of Maryland, College Park	Saint Louis University
1995	Rhodes College	Loras College
1994	Rhodes College	Bellarmine University
1993	Drake University	University of Maryland, College Park
1992*	University of Maryland, College Park	University of Maryland, College Park
1991	Rhodes College	Bellarmine University
1990	Rhodes College	Toledo Community College
1989	Drake University	University of St. Thomas
1988	University of South Dakota	Wright State University
1987	University of St. Thomas	Bellarmine University
1986	Wright State University	Northwestern University
1985	Eastern Illinois University	Central College

• From 1992 until 2010, the "Maryland Rule" was in effect, which placed both teams from the same school in the same division in order to ensure there wouldn't be another championship round between two teams from the same school. The Maryland Rule was repealed before the 2010-11 season.

National Championship Round Participants

Team	Winners	Winning Years	Runners-Up	Runner-Up Years
University of Maryland, College Park	5	2008, 2000, 1998, 1996, 1992	2	1993, 1992
Rhodes College	4	1995, 1994, 1991, 1990	3	2001, 1999, 1997
University of California, Los Angeles	3	2011, 2005, 2004	0	N/A
University of Virginia	2	2007, 2006	0	N/A
University of Iowa	2	2003, 2002	0	N/A
Drake University	2	1993, 1989	0	N/A
Bellarmine University	1	1999	4	1998, 1994, 1991, 1987
New York University	1	2010	1	2011
Howard University	1	1997	1	2003
University of St. Thomas	1	1987	1	1989
Wright State University	1	1986	1	1988
Northwood University	1	2009	0	N/A
Miami University (Ohio)	1	2001	0	N/A
University of South Dakota	1	1988	0	N/A
Eastern Illinois University	1	1985	0	N/A
Harvard University	0	N/A	3	2006, 2007, 2010
George Washington University	0	N/A	2	2008, 2009
Georgia Institute of Technology	0	N/A	1	2005
Columbia University	0	N/A	1	2004
Georgetown University	0	N/A	1	2002
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee	0	N/A	1	2000
Saint Louis University	0	N/A	1	1996
Loras College	0	N/A	1	1995
Toledo Community College	0	N/A	1	1990
Northwestern University	0	N/A	1	1986
Central College (Iowa)	0	N/A	1	1985

Law school

In the United States, law schools participate in interscholastic mock trial/trial advocacy. Teams typically consist of several "attorneys" and several "witnesses" on each side. A round consists of two law students acting as "attorneys" for each side.

The trial typically, although not always, begins with motions in limine and housekeeping matters, then moves through opening statements, witness testimony (both direct examination and cross examination), and finishes with a closing argument, sometimes called a summation. Throughout the trial, rules of evidence apply, typically the Federal Rules of Evidence, and objections are made applying these rules.

Every team in a tournament is given the same "problem" or "case", typically several months in advance, but for some tournaments only a few weeks ahead of the tournament's start. The problems can be criminal or civil, which effects many procedural aspects of the trial, for instance the increased rights of a criminal defendant not to testify against himself. The cases are written in an attempt to create an equal chance of either side prevailing, since the main objective is not to identify the winner of the case, but rather the team with superior advocacy skills.

Occasionally the winners of mock trial tournaments receive special awards such as money or invitations to special events, but the status of winning a tournament is significant in and of itself.

Mock Trial Competitions*: Georgetown White Collar Crime Invitational Mock Trial Competition, American Association for Justice Student Trial Advocacy Competition (formerly ATLA) National Civil Trial Competition, Texas Young Lawyers Association/National Trial Competition Mock Trial Competition (NTC), Michigan State University National Trial Advocacy Competition (NTAC), California Association of Criminal Justice (CACJ) Mock Trial Competition, Capitol City Challenge, National Ethics Trial Competition at Pacific McGeorge School of Law, Lone Star Classic National Mock Trial Tournament

• List incomplete

Other

Practicing litigators may use mock trials to assist with trial preparation and settlement negotiations. Unlike scholastic mock trials, these mock trials can take numerous forms depending on the information sought. For example, when faced with complex fact issues in a particular case, attorneys might convene a mini mock trial to try different methods of presenting their evidence, sometimes before a mock jury.

In fiction

• In an episode of the American television series The Fugitive, a once-famed attorney and current law professor named G. Stanley Lazer claims that he could reverse Richard Kimble's criminal conviction if the case went back to trial. To Kimble's chagrin, Lazer decides to prove his theory by conducting a mock trial with his students playing the prosecutor, defense lawyer, and jury in front of a live TV audience.
• In an episode of the American television show "Suits", Mike Ross, an employee of one of New York's top law firms, goes head-to-head with one of his co-workers in a mock trial.

See also

• Kangaroo court
• moot court

References

1. ^ National High School Mock Trial Championship, Inc.
2. ^ [1]
3. ^ American Mock Trial Association
4. ^ Perjuries Mock Trial
5. ^ [2]
6. ^ Mock Trial CRF
7. ^ NYSBA Mock Trial
8. ^ Law-related Education: Mock Trial main
9. ^ FLREA Mock Trial
10. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} National High School Mock Trial Championship
11. ^ http://www.collegemocktrial.org/mock/tabulation.php
12. ^ www.tba.org/mocktrial/2010_stateforms/powermatching.pdf
13. ^ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:PkvVWw6G8ngJ:www.collegemocktrial.org/mock/tabulation_files/0809tabmanualfebruaryupdate_2-3-09.doc+power+protection+college+mock+trial&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com
14. ^ [3]
15. ^ http://www.legalexplorer.com/education/education-mock.asp Mock Trial Education
16. ^ Jacqueline Minneman, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor (2006). "Mock Trial team wins national championship". The Cavalier Daily. http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=26730&pid=1430. Retrieved September 18, 2007. 

External links

• "Perjuries.com Mock Trial Forums" Online community forum discussing mock trial related topics.
• "International Online Mock Trial Competition" Mock Trial Online Competition hosted by practicing litigators.
• "Young Lawyers Division Statewide Mock Trial Competition" Pennsylvania Mock Trial. Pennsylvania Bar Association.
• "Florida High School Mock Trial." Florida Law Related Education. 2005. Florida Law Education Association, Inc. 4 Oct. 2006.
• "Mock Trial Competition." Constitutional Rights Foundation. 2006. Constitutional Rights Foundation. 4 Oct. 2006.
• "Mock Trials." Legal Explorer. 2006. State Bar of Wisconsin. 4 Oct. 2006.
• "Mock Trial Tournament." New York State Bar Association. 4 Oct. 2006. New York State Bar Association. 4 Oct. 2006.
• "Rules of the Competition." National High School Mock Trial Championship. 2006. National High School Mock Trial Championship, Inc. 4 Oct. 2006.
• "Tennessee State High School Mock Trial Competition." TBAlink. 2006. Tennessee Bar Association. 10 Oct. 2006.
• "Free Trial Advocacy Tips for Trial Lawyers" Winning Trial Advocacy Techniques blog
• "Massachusetts High School Mock Trial" Massachusetts Bar Association. 2007. Massachusetts Bar Association. 20 Feb 2007.
• "Ohio Mock Trial Ohio Mock Trial