Holding binders in hand, some people dressed in black suits are debating about the case of a teenage girl who lost her baby after drunk driving. Are they professional lawyers? No, they are McKinley students!

The Law Society Organization in our school competed in the 2014 Hawaii High School Mock Trial Tournament. The tournament lasted for five weeks from January to February. Qualified lawyers and Eric Bott guide the team.

Mock trial is an extracurricular program in which students participate in rehearsed trials to learn about the legal system in a competitive manner. It is very popular among the high schools in America nowadays. Many of them are competing for the national prizes.

In each trial, one team represents either the defense or prosecution side. Winners are not decided on the outcome of the case, whether the defendant would have been tried as guilty or not guilty, instead the scores are based on the performance of their own role. Competitions require a team to develop an argument to present in front of a judge. It is important for a law society member to be confident and prepared.

Each member can choose his or her own role as a lawyer or a witness. Lawyers are in charge of presenting a case. There will be an opening statement, direct questioning, cross questioning, and closing arguments. Opening statements and Closing arguments are meant to tie together the facts of the case. Direct lawyers need to be ask questions to their assigned witness to bring out the evidence that helps their case. Cross lawyers are responsible to poke holes in the opposing team’s witnesses to make them seem less credible. Witnesses are responsible to memorize their statements so that they can perform well during direct and cross questioning. Both lawyers and witnesses should be capable of adapting themselves to unsuspecting circumstances like forgetting the testimony or being nervous.

The challenges are not simply to master the techniques on the court. Law Society’s president, Silvana Mae Bautista, faced many problems of arranging the roles for the competition. The person assigned the role at first may have difficulties to go to the trial on that day. She needs to make backup plans and find another person to replace the former one.

Teammates should also have the heart to contribute their time and maybe take dual roles for the benefit of the whole team. Everyone is supposed to come to the Tiger Time for the club meeting every day during the competition session. Cooperation is the highest point since it is a team instead of individuals to compete with opponents. Performance of everyone counts into the total score. Students practice together and become each other’s tacit partners.

Keisha Togores, who is one of the members, said that the feeling was both nervous and exciting. As a witness, sitting alone beside the judge as well as being confronted by an opponent lawyer, she felt hard to perform perfectly. However, she said that the mock trial develops her confidence.

“Standing there is really stressful, but only the difficulties you regard as can make you stronger,” Togores said.