To prepare for their upcoming competition, Mock Trial is currently practicing running through their trial.
The competition will take place in the Montgomery County courthouse in February.
The students in Mock Trial were introduced to their case in early November and have been studying and practicing for it since.
The trial this year is about a civil case in which a participant in an obstacle course died while competing.
The person’s mother is now suing the company.
The members of Mock Trial started by reading through the packet to familiar ize themselves with the case.
According to Mock Trial advisor Denise Meehl, the packet that describes the case is “quite lengthy.”
“It includes the life and background of the case and then all the six witness testimonies as well,” Meehl said.
After reading the case, the participants were assigned roles.
Some were assigned to the defendants side and some to the plaintiff side, while others will play the witnesses.
Defense attorney Lena Smith described how in-depth the process is.
“The defense attorney does both a cross-examination and a direct examination,” Smith said.
Smith spoke to how much the club members practiced leading up to their competition.
After their roles were assigned, both sides worked on writing their direct and cross examinations.
However, not all members of the club have to write examinations on the other side. One such member is Ryan Ciuba.
“I’m the timekeeper,” Ciuba said. “I make sure they don’t run over their time limits.”
Ciuba said each side has 30 minutes to deliver their examinations and cross-examinations.
According to Meehl, the competition that they are participating in has been taking place for years.
“In a couple of weeks we’ll go to the Montgomery County courthouse and compete against two other Montgomery County schools,” Meehl said.
In the competition, Mock Trial will go up against another school.
Souderton’s defense will go against another school’s plaintiff, and Souderton’s plaintiff will go against another school’s defense.
According to plaintiff attorney Alex Ace, all schools get the same case, so they all study and prepare with the same material.
“Basically I will be cross-examining another school’s defense attorney, looking for something to attack,” Ace said.
Each role has specific tasks and goals, and the members of the Mock Trial do their best to embody that role for the competition.
Mock Trial lawyer Khushi Thacker, also helps to run the club itself.
“A lot of the work this year was to draw interest,” Thacker said. “Most of our members were seniors last year, so we lost a large portion of them.”
However, this year the club has drawn the interest of many more sophomores and freshmen.