To: All the Freshmen out there

<p>how do you do all the emoticons again? I don't know how to do a couple. they are pretty cute though... har har har har har har</p>

<p>Mock Trial is essentially (all states are pretty much the same but I'll use the dates and particulars from my state because I'm the most familiar with them) where in November a case is issued. The case consists of a summary, six affidavits, and exhibits. Each team consists of six members; three attorneys and three witnesses. The point is to "mock" real trials. The attorneys do a direct and cross examination, an opening, closing, and motion. During the trial, there is a presiding judge who makes all rulings regarding objections, motions, etc and three scoring judges who, you guessed it, score the teams. It's a lot of work, but also a lot of fun when you manage to get that great cross and it all pays off.
Oh, and there is a district competition at the end of February. If you fare well there you go to the State competition a few weeks later. If you are the TOP team at State, you go to nationals and compete against the top team from each state that participates in Mock Trial. We always go to state, but my team hasn't made it to nationals. Maybe this year is the year?</p>

<p>So, do we MOCK the trials, or just simple pretend that we are doing a trial? I think it's pretty silly to pretend.</p>

<p>It's conducted like a real trial. No one gets jailed/accused/forced to pay after it's all over. In pretty much every other sense, it's a real trial.</p>

<p>Sounds pretty fun. Anyone here going to be a really good criminal in a few years?</p>

<p>It's pretty fun. You dress up in a suit, the trial is conducted in a real court room with a real judge, etc. It's a fun time. The tension is real, too. No one is actually on trial but if you walked in the room you couldn't tell.</p>

<p>No mock trial at my school. But we do have a club call "The Legal Club"</p>

<p>To Patrick: Are you a witness or an attourney? Do you want to maybe someday enter the legal field? Based on what you told me, Mock Trial seems like a perfect preparation for a future lawyer.</p>

<p>To beramod: Hopefully, I won't be a criminal in a few years.</p>

<p>I wish we had mock trial here.
We did a mock trial in government class for 2 weeks.
So far the best 2 weeks of any class
I was an attorney and lost, but still was fun</p>

<p>I'm an attorney and am actually one of the few people who do want to eventually be an attorney. It's surprising that many people who join the Mock Trial team have no future legal aspirations. It is a watered down version of a real trial, but the preparation is intense enough that you know whether you'd like to do it for a living. The restrictions of a mock case often make it more challenging than if it were a real case. The main example is all witnesses are limited to testify on what is in their affidavit. You can't ask them all of the questions you want due to the answers not being in their affidavit. It forces the attoryneys to be creative and be more subtle in their questioning and strategy.</p>

<p>But that's probably more than you wanted to know. I'm pretty passionate about Mock Trial, though, so I may go overboard with my answers. ;)</p>

<p>Naw, it's not more than I want to know, I still want to know more. This year what your case about? It's good to be passionate about something, if you were to ask me about hip-hop dance (not commercial hip-hop..the breakdancing, popping, and locking, and etc.), I would probably go overboard with my answer, too. I hope you do make it to nationals this year.</p>

<p>The cases alternate each year between civil and criminal. Last year it was a murder case which was a lot of fun because it added to the drama, the witnesses could get emotional, etc. This year is a civil case which is a little less interesting on average, but the main problem is that it isn't written very well. There are lots of dates and what not that conflict. But it is essentially a defamation suit. A basketball coach kicked the star player off of the team and in the ensuing conflict a resume was posted on a school discussion board that was deemed to be falsified. The principal asked the coach about the resume and she agreed that it was hers, or so the principal says. Then a month or so later the principal publicly fired the coach at a PTA meeting, and mentioned the firing again at the commencement ceremony. The coach then alleges that the resume on the website was doctored and is not the resume she originally provided and filed a defamation suit. It gets a little more complicated because in the same time frame some personell files (which could include the resume) where modified and deleted, etc. There are some witnesses who could have done it. But the main thing is that the prosecution has to show the principal acted wrongfully and with malice, I'm on the defense so it is my job to prove 1) that the resume is correct and the coach falsified it when she provided it originally 2) that the coach didn't act with malice and if 1 doesn't work 3) that the principal acted with good faith in the knowledge that the resume was doctored (ie she got confirmation from the IT director before she fired the coach, etc). </p>

<p>The case materials, if you want to look at them, are here: <a href="http://www.scbar.org/pdf/LRE/2005case.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.scbar.org/pdf/LRE/2005case.pdf&lt;/a>
The file is in .pdf so you'll need adobe acrobat to read it. There is a nice little summary of the case buried in there somewhere.</p>

<p>Hey I'm freshman too, though my schedule is not as good.
freshman
Honors Com/Lit
Honors Integrated science
Honors Pcf/Nw history
Honors Cultural Geography
Integrated Geometry
French 1 (ugh)
(boring elective)
(meaningless elective)</p>

<p>To Patrick: No wonder it's time consuming. The case seems very complicated. Is Mock Trial year round, or is it broken into a season? Do you go to local competitions or is it only broken up into district,state, and nationals?</p>

<p>To mexican_dude: Hi, nice to meet you. I don't know why you think your schedule is not good as good; I think your schedule is very good. Is your school on block scheduling? If it's not, then having eight classes in a day must be stressful. I only have seven, but two of them are electives. What are your interests?</p>

<p>At my school anyway, the tryouts are about a week after the case is published which is in early November and it lasts until we lose at competition. The only competitions are regional, state, and national which is why it's an amazing accomplishment for the team that makes it to national.</p>

<p>To Mexican Dude: Schedule not good? You have four honors classes. As a freshman, I'd say even 1 honors class is good since generally freshmen schedules aren't very flexible. At my school, at the most, freshmen can take 2 honors classes, and if your on the regular track, the most you can take is 1 honors class plus there are prerequisites and kids have to test into the honors classes.</p>

<p>In fact, it is very stressful, each class if about 80 minutes each, four classes per semester; but we get a full credit, compared to other schools, yeah I live in washington, but my school is crappy and only like 4 or 5 AP are offered, but i could be wrong, but then again...I think we have that running start thing..</p>

<p>To Patrick: How are they try-outs like? Do you just write a speech and try to persuade your advisor? I wish we had a Mock Trial at my school, but I probably wouldn't have enought time to really focus on it. Even though, I might not be able to participate in it, it would still be nice to have one.</p>

<p>mexican_dude: If you get full credit for a 80 minute semester class, does that mean that you guys have more credits required to graduate?</p>

<p>If it came down to it, I would choose dance, but I still would be very sad to not do community service or participate in my community service group.</p>

<p>To ALL: If you had to choose only one EC to do, which one would you do?</p>

<p>Well actualy, the required credits to graduate are 29, but since I would have a total of 32 classes in total, i would get 32 credits, you just cant fail more than 3 classes, so 1 year=8 classes;=8 credits, times4 years=32</p>