After completing their 2011-2012 season and being the first North Penn team to win their county since 2007, the Mock Trial team will travel to Harrisburg over March 30th and 31st to compete in the State Championship Mock Trial Competition hosted by the Pennsylvania State Bar Association at the Dolphin County Court House.
The competition builds off of the case that the team has been working with and preparing all year. “It’s a case involving a battle between economic and environmental issues,” said Mock Trial adviser Mr. Brian Haley.
A pharmaceutical company has developed a magic product called “sutrastick” that has the ability to close up wounds and has brought in huge profits. In order to expand operation, the company has to expand a quarry to get their hands on more natural resources. However, the expansion of the quarry would mean destroying the habitat of the endangered bog turtle and there is an activist group that strongly opposes the destruction.
At the competition the team will compete in the quarterfinals. They argue the case both as plaintive and as the defense against another team. Juries compiled of Pennsylvanian lawyers will then decide who won each of the cases. If North Penn claims victories in both components of the trial they will immediately move onto the semifinals. However, if they only win the juries vote in one area, a panel of judges decides the overall winner by assigning point values to each case. They are based off of a 1-5 rating with a total of 120 points possible. Points are achieved in categories such as over all speaking ability and legal knowledge. This process repeats until and throughout the Mock Trail Competition finals.
With the North Penn team averaging 106 points per trail, they are going into the competition with high confidence.
“I honestly feel like we have a great chance [in the competition]. We have a really solid team this year with no weak spots. I wouldn’t be surprised if we won it all,” says expert witness for the team, senior, Austin Printz.
This belief stems from the fact that the team truly knows and understands the in and outs of both side of the case. “There’s not a team that I can imagine that knows the case better and knows the rules better than my students,” says Haley.
If the team wins the state title, not only will they earn that title, they will get the opportunity to put together a new case in under a month and then travel to New Mexico for the Mock Trail National Competition.
Starting out the year there were three hundred schools with mock trial teams. Now there are only 12 left–North Penn being one of them after winning their county.