Teams advance to regional mock trial competition
Advancing to the regional mock trial competition will be the combined team of students from Fort Cherry and Burgettstown high schools. The team advanced out of the Washington, Greene and Fayette tri-county district competitions that were held Feb. 8, 15 and 24 between teams from Trinity, Peters, Ringgold and Frazier school districts.
The 12-county competition for Region 3 rotates between districts and will be held this year in Washington County on March 7 at the Washington County Courthouse. Semi-finals will be held at 10 a.m. and the final at 1 p.m. Teams from District 1, which encompasses Westmoreland, Somerset and Indiana counties, and teams from District 3, Cambria, Blair, Bedford, Huntingdon, Fulton, Franklin and Mifflin counties, will join the District 2 champion to compete for the regional title. The victor in the regional mock trials will advance with 13 other schools to the statewide competition on March 27 and 28 in Harrisburg. The winning team will represent Pennsylvania in the national finals in Evansville, Ind., in May.
The tri-county and this year’s regional mock trials are coordinated by the Washington County Bar Association as part of the Pennsylvania Bar Association-Young Lawyers Division’s statewide competition. Washington County Court of Common Pleas judges preside for the mock trials and dozens of attorneys who are members of the Washington County Bar Association serve as bailiffs and scoring jurors.
The mock trial competition gives eight-member student teams the opportunity to argue both sides of a case in an actual courtroom before a judge. They hone their public speaking skills and learn valuable lessons about the legal system. The students, who play the roles of lawyers, witnesses, plaintiffs and defendants, are assisted by teacher coaches and lawyer advisers in preparing for competition.
The March 7 regional competition is open to the public. Schools interested in fielding teams during the 2020-21 season are particularly invited to attend. Applications for next year’s competition will likely be due at the end of October. More information is available at www.pabar.org/site/For-the-Public/Mock-Trial-Competition or Maria Engles at the Pennsylvania Bar Association, maria.engles@pabar.org. The application fee is $125 per team, and you may enter two to three teams per school.