Mock Trial is an AIA sanctioned sport where a team of students are given a real case that they present as lawyers and witnesses and compete against other high schools. In competitions, students are judged on a point based scale and train with real attorneys.

February 2, Mock Trial will attend the Sun Devil Mock Trial Camp at ASU where they will be mentored by lawyers and taught how to ask specific questions and conduct themselves in a courtroom.

Mariam Joseph, senior, explains exactly what Mock Trial is and what benefits it offers for students.

“Mock Trial is a court based simulation where students, who are not only interested in law but also increasing their public speaking, can form a team, and we compete against other high schools in a court [and] we get a case and we perform the case as lawyers and witnesses,” Joseph said.

Although already working with experienced lawyers and other resources, attending this camp may prove to be favorable in getting more critique and learning new ways to present their case.

“We haven’t gotten as much experience as we possibly could. Most of our resources have been just studying online, just kind of student taught and getting some experience with people who are up in the higher ups and just doing it a lot would help us,” said Dylan Williams, sophomore.

Taking part in this camp will also better prepare new mock trial members to take over after senior members graduate.

“Most of our club right now is seniors and sophomores. So as the seniors graduate I know the sophomores are going to need more knowledge about how mock trial runs, so I think it’s a really good opportunity for us to learn more and bond with everyone,” Joseph said.

As of right now, Mock Trial already has access to several resources and is working with lawyers to help strengthen their technique. This camp will only provide them with more tools and open their eyes as to what mock trial is like in college.

“So not only will our students be exposed to our lawyers and what we have available, but they will actually see how mock trial goes on even in college because the mock trial that we do in high school is actually a stepping stone for college,” said Patricia DeVito, advisor and ELA teacher.

This camp will give new mock trial members insight as to what competitions will be like while they gain experience working with college mock trial members.

“I think it’s going to greatly assist them, especially because we have some students who are brand new to the program and so they haven’t really seen anything,” DeVito said. “And ASU is going to give them that opportunity to actually watch it in form, but they are also going to mentor them.”

With an opportunity like this one, OHS Mock Trial hopes to bring knowledge and experience back to use in their own cases especially for the regional competition in March.

“We are going to go work with ASU’s mock trial team and we are going to learn from them ‘cause we actually got really close to qualifying for the finals last year and we really want to step up our game and see if we can actually win something this year,” Williams said.