Almost 300 teams from 242 high schools across Pennsylvania will compete in district and regional levels of the Statewide Mock Trial Competition sponsored by the Pennsylvania Bar Association Young Lawyers Division. Pennsylvania's mock trial program, now in its 36th year, is recognized as one of the largest in the nation.
During the competition, eight-member student teams are given the opportunity to argue both sides of the case in an actual courtroom before a judge. The students, who play the roles of lawyers, witnesses, plaintiffs, and defendants, are assisted by teacher coaches and lawyer advisers in preparing for competition. Lawyers and community leaders serve as jurors for the mock trials. The juries determine the winners in each trial based on the teams' abilities to prepare their cases, present arguments, and follow court rules.
The district and regional levels of the competition took place in February and will continue throughout March. At the conclusion of the local competitions, 14 high school mock trial teams will advance to the Pennsylvania Bar Association Statewide Mock Trial Championships, scheduled on Friday, March 29, and Saturday, March 30, in Harrisburg. The winning team of the state championship will represent Pennsylvania in the national mock trial finals to be held from Thursday, May 16, through Saturday, May 18, in Athens, Ga.
This year's hypothetical case is a criminal jury trial in which the defendant, a local pain management doctor, is accused of prescribing opiate painkillers outside the realm of normal medical practice, resulting in the overdose death of his patient. The case was written by Jonathan A. Grode of Philadelphia, Paul W. Kaufman of Philadelphia, Jonathan D. Koltash of Harrisburg, and Talia Charme-Zane, an alumna of the Pennsylvania mock trial program and former captain of the Central High School team in Philadelphia.
For more information about the 2019 Pennsylvania Bar Association Statewide Mock Trial Championships and to read this year's case, readers may visit http://www.pabar.org/site/For-the-Public/Mock-Trial-Competition. Interested volunteers should contact Maria Engles of the Pennsylvania Bar Association at 800-932-0311, ext. 2223.
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