As Mock Trial closes one case, another case is opened. Earlier in February, Diamond Bar High School’s Mock Trial traveled to the University of Chicago to compete at the National American Moot Court Competition during the Presidents’ Day weekend.
Moot court and mock trial, while easily confused, are quite different. Mock trial imitates a standard criminal court case, while moot court imitates an appellate case delivered in front of the Supreme Court arguing the constitutionality of a fictitious law.
“A student writes an argument trying to convince the judge whether or not that law is indeed unconstitutional,” Mock Trial coach Latitia Thomas said. “The judge can then interrupt them at any time to ask them clarifying questions, the fake law or any hypothetical situation.”
To prepare the students beforehand, Thomas had them go through an arduous process prior to preparing their argument for Moot Court.
“We take the fictitious court case, the students decide which one they want to argue and we learn all the relevant court cases,” Thomas said. “There’s usually about 20 of them, then we guide them through writing it and have them present their arguments then.”
Moot Court is open to any student in Mock Trial who wishes to participate. Members included Jeremiah Jung, Ashley Cha, Hilary Hui, Gloria Nien and Chloe Schaefer; juniors Mia Artale, Chloe Zhuo and Sean Yu; and freshmen Annie Kung and Doria Chen. To prepare, the team put in extra hours to practice their arguments.
“We had practice every day after school for about an hour,” Artale said. “On weekends, we would meet with Mrs. Thomas, or my partner and I would work on it together.”
Despite navigating tough competition and strong opposition, Moot Court was ultimately a success for Thomas and her students.
“It was kind of intimidating at first because you didn’t know the questions the judges were going to ask you, but as we got into later rounds I got more confident,” Artale said. “It was also tough because in the later rounds, I did my argument from memory, which was scary but exciting.”
With most Mock Trial and Moot Court competitions now over, the competitors look for opportunities in future competitions.
“I am extremely grateful that I got the opportunity to go,” Artale said. “It was also a really good learning experience because I learned so much about our legal system and had the ability to compete at such a high level.”
