High School Courtroom Competitions

Mock Trial and Moot Court Involve Significant Benefits to Students

Feb 21, 2009

Whether students will pursue Law, Business, or any number of other disciplines, high school court programs teach skills that look good on college applications.

High school court programs are excellent extra curricular activities that encourage leadership, critical thinking, and organization. Although the preparation is arduous, successful students will learn far more than sitting in a civics class and have an activity to list on their college applications that is top tier. Students considering an eventual career in law benefit immensely from these programs and often begin networking relationships with attorney mentors and advisors that can lead to summer internships and possible job offers.

Most states compete in annual “Moot Court” events that usually begin as county competitions, sending winning teams to regional finalist competitions and finally the state competition. Competitions on the regional and state level tend to be judged by actual judges, often from the appellate level. Interested teachers and schools should contact the state American Bar Association office to obtain detailed information and application materials.

Moot Court competitions focus on single cases that present a problem relevant to Constitutional rights such as due process, freedom of speech, or that involve cases of discrimination or racism. Although fictitious, case problems may mirror actual cases. Students begin with lower and appellate court briefings that give the facts of the case as well as the ruling. Dissenting opinions are also included.

Fully understanding both sides of the case problem also entails learning the precedent cases cited in the lower court documents. If the rules permit, cases outside of those given may also be accessed. With the assistance of volunteer attorneys, students master standard court procedure, presenting the case, arguing the salient Constitutional issues, and answering questions from the judges. The preparation process can be extremely grueling; students without a good work ethic should not commit to this program. Teams are comprised of two student attorneys.

Statewide Mock Trial Competitions

Mock Trial competitions are usually sponsored by Trial Lawyers’ associations and are conducted in most states. Unlike the Moot Court, the Mock Trial is an actual trial court that involves either a criminal or civil case. Teams of five to seven students take on the roles of attorneys, defendants, plaintiffs, and witnesses. Although success rests in a thorough knowledge of trial procedure, the addition of witnesses adds the dimension of drama. Some states include courtroom artists and writers/reporters as part of the overall competition.

Annual Mock Trial competitions begin on a county level but proceed immediately to state competitions. Counties are usually part of specific regions within the state. Winning state teams compete in a national competition. As with the Moot Court, the Mock Trial program requires the tutoring services of volunteer attorneys.

Mock Trial and Moot Court competitions are also part of larger, “Model Congress” programs facilitated by universities like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. These are also annual competitions. Unlike state competitions, these elite programs frequently assign two or three different case problems, making the student preparation all the more encompassing.

Benefits of Student Participation

These programs should not be considered by students already involved in a plethora of extra curricular activities. School counselors and advisors should only recommend these programs to students willing to commit as much time to the program as they would to a regular semester class. Because of the overall benefits, however, interested students should be prepared to give up lesser activities that, in the long run, may not translate into a future benefit as much as one of these programs.

The copyright of the article High School Courtroom Competitions in College Preparation is owned by Michael Streich. Permission to republish High School Courtroom Competitions in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.