Competition Overview

This competition is designed to create more opportunity to develop trial advocacy skills – and to foster collegiality and professionalism. This will be everyone’s first intermural law school trial competition; by rule, participation is limited to students who have not previously competed in external trial competitions.

To ensure outstanding feedback, and to reduce the burden on the host, all trials will be judged and scored by coaches of participating teams (but, of course, no one will judge their own school).

We will have awards for top teams, top individual advocates, and the coaches who provide best feedback to other schools.

Timeline

• September 3: Case Release
• September 17: Clarifications due at 11:59 p.m. Pacific
• September 23: Final version of case released
• October 28: Zoom Coaches’ Meeting: rules, pairings, judge assignments
• November 2-3: Competition in Austin, hosted by University of Texas School of Law
• November 9-10: Competition in Philadelphia, hosted by Drexel Kline School of Law. Competition in Los Angeles, hosted by UCLA School of Law

Schedule

Rules

1. Roster. Teams consist of four students seeking a J.D. who have never competed in an external law school trial competition (defined as any scored mock trial round against law students from another school).
2. Judging. Coaches will judge and score all trials. To participate, each team must be able to provide at least one coach with a J.D. to judge for each of the four rounds. Teams are welcome to rotate who judges for them throughout the competition. Coaches will never be assigned to judge their own school.
3. Format. Each team will have four trials, with two on each side of the case.
4. Roles. Each student is an advocate in two trials and a witness in two trials. Each advocate performs one direct, one cross, and one speech (opening or closing).
5. Motions in Limine. Each advocate may make one oral motion in limine. Motions in limine must be exchanged during meet-and-confer.
6. Timing. Witnesses keep time. Each advocate has 30 minutes to present their direct, cross, and speech. The clock stops for objections. Motion in limine are untimed. Trial recesses for 5 minutes after each case in chief. After trial, judges may give 2 minutes of feedback per advocate.
7. No enlargements. We want to make travel easier and participation less expensive. Whiteboard and flipcharts are permitted.
8. Fair play. No scouting, which includes any attempt to learn information about an opponent before trial. No invention of fact. No coach-advocate communication between the start of meet-and-confer and the end of trial. We anticipate no protests because coach-judges will reflect advocate conduct in their scores.
9. Scoring by judges. Judges will score each part of trial (opening, two directs, two crosses, and closing) out of 10 points, for a total possible score of 60 points. There will be two ballots per trial.
10. Scoring by advocates. To encourage great feedback by judges and camaraderie among advocates, teams will vote on Best Judge and Most Collegial Team.
11. Host. If UCLA competes, its teams will receive no assistance from the case authors.
12. Team Awards. Team awards will be based on number of ballots won. Tiebreakers will operate in this order: (a) strength of schedule (number of ballots won by your opponents), (b) point differential, (c) greater distance traveled (so the host cannot win this tiebreaker).