The mock trial season has just come to a close. Although Aragon came in last place, the team members have already begun to prepare another exciting season for next year’s team.
The Mock Trial team is a student team where students learn about the law and use information about a trial to compete against other schools. Similar to a real trial, the mock trial team has attorneys and witnesses. The Constitutional Rights Foundation issues cases to schools in the fall.
The schools work on their arguments until February when the cases take place. Each school is given an attorney coach, a district attorney or assistant district attorney that helps the team with their argument.
Essentially, schools have two Mock Trial teams. Students are split into prosecution or defense as either attorneys or witnesses. These teams will then compete against another school’s prosecution or defense team. Witnesses will represent the same person throughout three trials, but must additionally maintain their character throughout. Being a witness requires one to have the ability to dodge tricky questions, and respond with answers that the attorneys were not expecting. Attorneys are the opposite, because they have a series of questions designed to pin down witnesses and get them to contradict themselves.
During the actual case, real judges volunteer to preside over the teams while the scorers are usually practicing attorneys, both civil and criminal.
Mock trial is divided into regions, out of which Aragon is located in the southern district. The top two teams in this division go onto county, then possibly state or national level.
Despite the disappointing results of the season, the team feels that they succeeded in creating a realistic simulation. Still, many feel that they struggled with presentation and that the disappointing scores after the first two trials hampered their motivation to perform in the final trial.
Many feel that Mock Trial has had a profound educational impact on their decision –making. Junior Sharon Borden, an attorney, says, “I enjoy the law aspect of mock trial, and I will definitely consider a legal career.”
Freshman Regina Wen agrees, “I believe that [Aragon] is one of the only teams in the competition that does mock trial to learn about the law.
Junior Carly Olson, an attorney, says she “enjoys the public speaking involved in mock trial in addition to the legal aspect.”
Both Borden and Olson started mock trial freshman year. Advisor Carlo Corti adds, “Although there is no official president, Sharon and Carly take charge because they have been around longest.”
Nathan Zhang, the bailiff, practices swearing in witnesses. He says, “I feel like I learned a lot by watching what goes on this year, and hopefully I will be an attorney or witness next year.”
Until next season, prospective members of Mock Trial should anticipate tryouts in September. Mr. Corti gives a fake case to group of prospective team members who will then answer questions about the case. Wen says, “It’s like a ‘mock’ mock trial.”
