Oratory Mock Trial 4-0 through County Preliminaries

Oratory Mock Trial 4-0 through County Preliminaries

Jack Munro, Staff Writer

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).
On January 12 and 17th, Oratory went to the Union County Courthouse to compete in the preliminary round of the Union County tournament. During each day, the plaintiff and defense would each go at the same time, against different schools and in different courtrooms. On the first day, the plaintiff side, with lawyers Joey D’Angelo and Justin Meisner and witnesses Jack Munro, Luigi Franzese, and Joe Garibaldi, beat Elizabeth while the defense side, with lawyers Justin Rodriguez and Nick Sannito and witnesses Thomas Snyder, Chris Kraemer, and Mike Wandel, beat Bruriah. The second day (January 17th), Oratory won both of its trials, again, against Cranford, for the plaintiff, and Dayton, for the defense. Oratory will compete in the county semi-final on January 30th.