This year’s mock trial case is about mock trial. It sounds weird but makes more sense after some explanation. The case is based on a county final in the 2014-2015 season where one team accuses the other team of cheating because a lawyer and his/her coach were seen talking outside the courtroom. The team that is accused of cheating wins the trial, and a student on the other team writes a popular blog containing his/her allegations. The coach of the losing team then files an appeal against the victory of the winning team but doesn’t get the result he wants. Instead, the appeal is denied as the investigation concluded that there was not enough evidence to say that the winning team was cheating/innocent. Promptly after, though, the scholarship (that is given out every single year) is suddenly not being given out due to a “lack of funding”. The winning team believes that the scholarship wasn’t given out because the allegations, if true, would give the bar foundation (who gives out the scholarship) a bad name. They, then, file for defamation and compensatory damages of up to 30,000 (the amount of the scholarship that is usually given out).

After finishing 2nd place in the state last year, the mock trial team began practicing very early in the year. Tryouts for the team began in the middle of September and spanned about a week. All of the returning members made the team, along with four others. From there, the team began to prepare for the ‘demo’ trial in October. The demo trial is essentially a rematch of the state championship, but with the new case and for learning purposes for other mock trial moderators/coaches. OP’s mock trial team faced Bergen Catholic, again, and performed very well, but there was no winner/loser at the end because it was a scrimmage. However, Oratory had a strong showing and was already off to a great start so early in the year.

Around early November, fall sports had mostly ended and the team had almost all of its members available to try out for a role as either an attorney or witness. After tryouts, the roles had been set — the plaintiff consisted of attorneys Joey D’Angelo and Justin Meisner and witnesses Joe Garibaldi, Jack Munro, and Luigi Franzese while the defense consisted of attorneys Nick Sannito and Justin Rodriguez and witnesses Thomas Snyder, Chris Kraemer, and Michael Wandel. From there, the team competed in six scrimmages against teams like Montclair Kimberley Academy, Mendham, and Princeton Day School, and improved after each one.

On the 12th and 17th of January, OP competed in the preliminary rounds of the Union County Tournament. During each day, the plaintiff and defense sides each went, individually, against other teams in the county (a total of two trials for the plaintiff and two trials for the defense). OP won all four trials, and clinched a spot in the semifinal round against Oak Knoll, beating them soon after. A few days after that, OP’s plaintiff side was chosen to go, again, against Kent Place in the county finals. After a long trial, OP was deemed the victors and had won the Union County Championship for the sixth year in a row.

After winning the county championship, OP had around one week to prepare for the central regional tournament, a competition consisting of all the county champions within the central region of New Jersey. On February 7th, OP traveled to the NJ Law Center in New Brunswick to face Voorhees in the first round of the central regional tournament. OP drew the plaintiff side while Voorhees was selected to go as the defense. Soon after, OP found out that they had won and were on to the next round, the semifinals. After a quick lunch, OP returned to the large mock trial room and was selected to go to Watchung Hills Regional High School. OP picked (randomly) the defense side, and WHRHS got the plaintiff. After an extremely long trial, the judges decided in favor of the defense (WHRHS), meaning that OP had lost.

Although OP’s mock trial team would have liked to get further, they are happy with their result (top 12 in the state) and will miss the four seniors (Joe Garibaldi, Justin Rodriguez, Justin Meisner, and James Zangari) next year. However, the mock trial team looks to go even further next year, and win a state championship.