Team sports often get all the glory for building character and life skills in young people, but despite popular belief, mock trials aren’t just for students who want to be lawyers.
“It’s the sport for the intellectuals that want to exercise their minds,” said Matt McGahren, head attorney coach of the Norcross High School Mock Trial team.
“I think what it does for these high school students is that it gives them not just speaking skills and logical reasoning skills but also a lot of self-confidence and self-esteem. It shows them the value of hard work. They exercise not just their mind but their creativity,” he explained.
Students thrive in mock trial
Along with attorney coach Skip Hudgins and teacher coach Harold Wright, youngsters are guided through mock cases to give them an authentic look into the legal system.
Those who play witnesses learn to be actors in a way. Regardless of the profession the students will pursue, the most valuable lesson is the art of persuasion.
“The advantages they have interviewing with employers later in life and interacting in the work environment, I just think it’s a phenomenal opportunity, and I think we want more people to know about it,” said McGahren.
The coaching has paid off. Norcross High School has gone to the state finals five years in a row.
“I think [students] can come in with a variety of different strengths, and then we just build the parts that aren’t there, as well as the motivation and the desire to do it,” said McGahren. “I come from a background of being too scared in high school to even get up and speak, and I wish I had pushed myself to overcome those fears. So, I think willingness is the best skill they need to have.”
Wright, a social science teacher at Norcross High School, agreed.
“Mock trial entails learning some researching because too often, especially now, they talk about false narratives and fake news and stuff like that where people just take information, pull it out of the sky, and act like it’s true,” he said.
The Georgia Mock Trial Competition
The competition is designed to increase students’ understanding of and appreciation for the law, court procedures and the legal system, according to sponsor State Bar of Georgia.
“They get a problem from the state and don’t really research the law, but they learn the rules of evidence,” said McGahren.
Preparing for the competition creates a family atmosphere because alums help the students, and it’s like a fraternal society.
The state bar’s mock trial committee prepares a problem for high school mock trials that contains a fact pattern and witness statements. It has legal authorities like case law for the competitors to refer to, and a narrative goes along with it.
Basic guidelines
“It will either be a civil case or a criminal case. And this year’s case was a criminal case. So the challenge was to figure out what’s going on in the problem, figure out who the characters are, and find out what the legal questions are,” said Wright. “The team has to represent both sides of the case, the prosecution, and the defense, and they develop a theory of what they think happened from their perspective.”
The teams work on developing the characters, starting with witness statements.
“We have not only great student attorneys, but we also have great witnesses,” said Wright. “We have a few months from October to January to prepare the case. We do scrimmages against other schools. Then there are three rounds of competition.”
He explained that there’s a regional competition, a district-level competition, and a state competition.
“Our team will be assigned either prosecution or defense for each round,” said Wright. “It’s like an unscripted simulation. They play the case out in court, and we often have actual judges for the rounds and attorneys who act as evaluators. They’re the jury.”
The students are rated on how well they do for their part and are also given a lot of constructive feedback. Sometimes, the cases are loosely based on actual problems or legal issues.
“There was one several years ago that was about the Castle Doctrine – the stand-your-ground laws,” said Wright. “But it’s not a specific case, but sometimes it’s maybe a legal concept that the kids might have heard about.”
Faux court, real results
Recent grad Elena Domenech has been in mock trial for three years and recommends it.
“I wholeheartedly believe it was the best decision that I ever made. I met some of my best friends, and I learned how to be confident in myself,” she said. “I wrote my college essays about mock trial and what it meant to me, and it has been an experience of joy, growth and positivity.”
She added that making it to the state semi-finals this year was an amazing feeling, especially considering how worried the team was coming into the competition.
“It all just goes to show how much hard work is worth. I am excited to try out for Georgia Tech’s mock trial team and am even more excited to take what I have learned with such an incredible team with me throughout the rest of my life,” she said.
Rising senior Yvonne Coleman has also been in mock trial for three years and had similar feelings.
“It is by far my favorite and most beneficial extracurricular I participate in,” she said. “This year, Norcross’ Mock Trial team qualified for the state semi-finals, winning every Outstanding Witness and Attorney Award at State Competition. I am beyond proud of my team’s success!”
She added that mock trial has improved her writing and speaking skills. It has also given her the confidence that one day she might argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court or even become a Supreme Court Justice herself.
