Becoming an attorney is a notoriously difficult and lengthy process. Typically, you have to graduate college, pass the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), go to law school for three years, pass the bar exam, and finally secure a job at a law firm. But without doing any of that, students throughout Montgomery County Public Schools have the chance to be attorneys and witnesses through Mock Trial club.
In Mock Trial, the Maryland Bar Association creates a case file with a description of the case, as well as affidavits and evidence. From there, students use these materials to construct an argument for their side.
“I’d say [Mock Trial is] something between a courtroom drama and an improv skit,” Quince Orchard High School sophomore and Mock Trial witness McKenzie Phelan said. “There’s so many threads to follow and storylines that both teams can construct from the evidence, so you need to really stay on your toes and be ready to strategize if you want to be successful.”
Students from the entire state of Maryland are given the same case, which they learn before competing against other schools. Each year, the cases alternate between civil cases—which involve private disputes between individuals or organizations—and criminal cases, which involve crime.
This year, students were given a civil case called Aaron Griggs v. Jodie Donahue. It involves college student Aaron Griggs, who explored the property where his favorite movie was filmed, owned by the defendant, Jodie Donahue. While exploring the property, Griggs went inside of a cabin and fell down a staircase to his death. Students argue whether Donahue was responsible for Griggs’ death, as it is debatable whether Griggs was trespassing by entering the cabin.
After students were given this case, they were divided into the plaintiff side, which argued that Donahue was liable for Grigg’s death, and the defense side, which argued that she was not. Each lawyer prepares a direct examination of a witness from their side, wherein they ask open-ended questions that help build their case. They also prepare a cross-examination, asking “yes” or “no” questions to a witness from the other side to tear down their opponent’s case.
“The most difficult part of being a witness is definitely the cross-examination. When you’re doing a direct examination, it’s usually somewhat memorized, and you’re working off of a script you’ve written with your lawyer. But during cross, you’re up against someone you’ve never met before, with just your memory and maybe the case booklet to help you,” Phelan said.
While it may be hard to prepare for competitions, it helps a lot to have a strong and supportive team dynamic. “The best part of Mock Trial is definitely being with the team,” Thomas S. Wootton High School senior and Mock Trial attorney Dylan Safai said. “Both sides of our school want to help each other out to get better. Overall, it’s a very uplifting environment. Everybody on the team is nice to one another, and of course, everybody does give constructive criticism, because they want you to get better.”
Competitions this year started in January, and teams from schools all over the county, as well as some from other counties and private schools, competed to win the case. Real-life attorneys and occasionally circuit court judges judge the competitions, scoring students based on their individual performance instead of deciding which school would win the case in a real court.
“I prefer it this way [because] no team has an advantage based on whether or not their case is better,” Quince Orchard junior and Mock Trial attorney Hayden Polsky said. “[This] system allows us to be judged on our presentation, skill level and critical thinking skills as opposed to how well the law fits our case.”
“All in all, I have to say that I’ve really enjoyed Mock Trial, and I highly recommend it to anybody looking to get into the field of law, or realistically, any field in the future,” Safai said. “The skills you learn in Mock Trial are going to carry out throughout everything you do in life.”
Written by Hailey Baker of Quince Orchard High School
“Justice Gavel” by toridawnrector is marked with CC BY-SA 2.0.