How do I prepare for trial?

 

Mock Trial isn’t easy, if it was, everyone would do it. Your first mock trial may seem intimidating, but once you're on the stand (or in front of it), it gets infinitely less intimidating. You’ve worked hard on crafting examinations, creating theories and conducting openings and or closings. Performing these in front of a judge or lawyer may be nerve-racking, especially when how you do impacts the success of other members on your team. Luckily, there are some ways to feel more confident and prepared!

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PRACTICE

I cannot emphasize enough how important practicing is. Practice makes performances! When you know what to do, say, and look like, trials become infinitely less stressful. The key to practicing isn’t being perfect, it’s about trusting yourself. Practice until you don’t doubt whether or not you're memorized, practice responding to any objection you could think of and most of all, fake it till you make it! At the end of the day, mock trials are fake cases, nobody's going to jail or getting charged, so try your best, and remember one score does NOT define you! 

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Specific practice tips: 

 

• Try practicing in front of a mirror so you know what facial expressions to make. It makes being on the stand or giving an examination so much easier when you don't have to worry about what you look like to the judge or witness, so you can really lock in on the performance.

 

• Record yourself! This way, you get a sense of what pace to talk at. Timing yourself is a good idea too so you don’t have to worry about time on the day of the trial, and even practicing with a metronome can help so you go at a steady pace and get a feel for the time without staring at a timer constantly.

 

• Think about your paper. If you have trouble memorizing, try to remember or memorize what the paper you examination is on looks like, along with where the questions are on it. This way, you can visualize each of the questions on the paper and think of it more as reading them off the paper rather than reciting them. Try to create sections of the paper, maybe highlight or underline certain parts so when you are performing, you can remember the different sections.

 

• Practice confidence. The easiest way to earn a good score is by being confident. Judges are real people with busy lives, they do not have time to think of every possible direct, cross, opening, closing or theme that could be brought up in trial. As long as you are selling your examination, opening statement or closing argument, hold a strong tone, volume, mannerisms, posture, and speak at normal pace (sometimes it’s better to speak slower, people tend to speed up when they are nervous!) you will appear much more prepared. Confidence is key, but remember most people struggle with it!

 

• Most importantly, MAKE SURE YOUR CASE IS STRONG!!! Mock Trial is hard, but if all of the examnations relate to a core theme or themes, you should be good. A few weeks before trail, edit them so the central theme is strong and clear for the judge, it should be reflected in every examination and tie into the closing. Of course, all the examinations can reflect themes related to the witness, but they should all prove and overall theme or idea for the case. Try to run a full trial with your team before your first real trial adn have everyone take notes to see if the case actuall makes sense. Having non club members watch can be helpful to so you get advice from people sho have never heard the case before and can easily tell you if it makes sense or not.

 

• Make your examinations concise.This is something that takes time, the original draft of an examination shouldn’t be the one you bring to trial. It takes two, three, or maybe even more than, drafts of an examination before you can feel confident with your lines of questioning. When re-writing examinations try to focus on developing a clear theme, making the order of questions logical, and working the questions as simple as possible for the judge, and witness, to understand.

 

• ​​Become your witness. Being a witness is a lot more than just answering questions, it’s about acting. How would your witnesses talk, how would they answer questions, what tone would they have?  It's extremely helpful to know who your witness is and how they act before going to trial, it may seem silly, but getting a perfect score certainly isn’t. In your case packet, chances are, there isn’t information about how a witness talks, you get to make that up! So have fun with it, and be memorable, but don’t over do it and make sure to stay true to the character and tone of the case! Murder trials will take a much more melancholy tone than a witness in a civil case, in general.