Sample proposal by

Anvi Gaikwad

MOCK TRIAL
Law society and Business leaders of tomorrow
 Step 1: Schedule
◦ Day 1 : Pick teams, judges and juries for each case
◦ Day 2: Have trial one
◦ Day 3: Have trial two
◦ Day 4: If required have trial three

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licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
Step 2: team members required
◦ Two teams are required for each trial
◦ Depending on the total number of participants, for
each case we will need; a judge, 4 jury members,
2-4 mock lawyers
◦ Form teams of 5
◦ Each team will consist of 2 lawyers and 3 witnesses
◦ People not a part of either the defendant’s side or
plaintiff's can sign up to be the judge or a jury
member,
◦ A judge and 4-6 jury members should be picked
for each case
Step 3: cases
◦ Each team will be assigned a case out of two options from each of the
following categories:
◦ Participants will get the option of picking their category of cases and will be
assigned into teams accordingly;
- Corporate law
- Criminal law
- Civil law

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 Step 4: stages of each trial
◦ Prepare for trial- Each team gets 30mins to present their case
1. Make an opening statement (3 mins each team)
2. Present 3 pieces of crucial evidence with explaining arguments
(5mins each piece of evidence )
3. Present 3 witnesses for each team(or witness statements if candidate
cannot be present) (5mins for each witness)
4. Prepare for rebuttal and cross examination of witnesses based on a
preset witness list (10 mins each team)
5. Closing arguments (3 mins each team)
◦ Thus, each trial gets approx. 92mins max.

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Step 5: rules for mock trials
◦ Important Note: the documents for opening
statements, closing statements, evidence
proof and witness statements must be
provided to the judge in advance via mail or
hard copy with sources cited.
◦ Precedents for arguments should be limited to
California state law only
◦ The trials will be conducted over a span of
two to three days to make sure we cover
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Step 5: continued…
◦ Each judge would be ensuring that the lawyers’ arguments are well spoken thus no
misconduct occurs like for instance,
1. No badgering of witnesses
2. No testifying statements must be made by lawyers
3. Proper documents of all information and evidence presented must be given to the
judge by a decided deadline before the D-day so that they have enough time to
review everything before mock-court day.
4. Make a ruling as per all facts and arguments presented.
◦ All members of the club that are watching another team’s trial will be welcomed to
become a part of the jury
Resources provided
◦ Each team will be provided with a case as per their chosen legal category
◦ Every lawyer will be provided with:
1. a witness list
2. an evidence list
Both lists will be covering witnesses and evidences listed for both the plaintiff and
defendant to disclose the trial structure to both teams.

◦ Witness will be given fact files based on their character and may share it with their own
team lawyers only
Step 6: conclusion of trials
◦ Post the ending of all trials, jury members listed for each trial will provide an
answer for which side of the argument they found most convincing, each jury
members favor will earn a team 10 points and the judge will also make a ruling
which will earn a team 20 points.
◦ Results will be obtained through google forms and posted post the conclusion
day on the group
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC