Pupils gain experience in Independent Schools' Mock Trial Competition

Last week students took part in the Independent Schools’ Mock Trial Competition.  

The Independent School Mock Trial Competition helps young people understand how the law touches every aspect of their lives, gaining an insight into how the legal justice system works. 

Anna S (M, LVI) tells us more about the competition. 

“I signed up to take part in the Independent Schools’ Mock Trial Competition to learn more about the judicial legal system, and whilst my knowledge of courtroom procedure expanded significantly so did my critical thinking ability and attention to detail.  

“We were split into three groups, each group tackling one of the two legal cases, varying from a drug offense to a nightclub assault, and from there we were assigned our role in the trial. These positions consisted of prosecutors, defence barristers, witnesses, court clerks, ushers, and jury members.   

“In our teams we closely analysed our cases, detecting the key weaknesses and strengths in each of our arguments and coming up with loopholes to each flaw. After many Monday practice sessions, kindly organised by Mrs Corcoran, we finally felt prepared for the competition against external schools.  

“All three teams won all cases by a great margin, catching out other school’s witnesses with well-executed questions that they hadn’t even thought to consider, at times leaving them completely speechless. Despite the overall spectacular performances from all teams we sadly did not go through to the final, leaving many of us feeling that justice was not served. 

“Regardless, I am very glad I took part and made the most of this excellent opportunity to improve my public speaking skills and ability to think on my feet; I thoroughly recommend taking part next year – it is certainly something to add to the CV!  

“Many thanks again to Mrs Corcoran for giving up her time and helping to organise this valuable experience for us all.” 

Markus T (PH, LVI) was also part of the Mock Trials. 

“I was involved in 2 of the 3 cases that were argued that day. I enjoyed the friendly questions that the prosecution barristers, Daisy and Anna, put together for me to answer but the unfriendly questions from an opposing school were definitely a challenge. It was quite difficult to think on my feet on what would benefit our case and what would help the defences’ case. 

“The 2nd case that I was involved in was our last one of the day. Our team had a lot of pressure riding on us as we had won both of our cases we had presented already. I was an Usher in the case so was attached to the defence team. My job was to swear in the witnesses and make sure that my team ran smoothly and didn’t speak too soon or too late which is important especially in front of an actual judge who is marking our performance.  

“Our team again performed well and we won our case. In the end though we lost the competition even though we had won all our cases. Hopefully we can try again next year and move through into the finals.”