2 Springfield Schools Joining Statewide Mock Trial Competition

SPRINGFIELD, PA — Nearly 300 teams from more than 240 Pennsylvania high schools will compete in district and regional levels of the Statewide Mock Trial Competition sponsored by the Pennsylvania Bar Association Young Lawyers Division. And two schools in Springfield are among those sending teams.

This month, 287 teams from 242 high schools across Pennsylvania will participate in the mock trial program, now in its 36th year and one of the largest in the nation.

Springfield High School and Cardinal O’Hara High School will be sending team to the competition.

The district and regional levels of the competition will continue throughout February and March.

At the conclusion of the local competitions, 14 high school mock trial teams will advance to the Pennsylvania Bar Association Statewide Mock Trial Championships, March 29 and March 30, in Harrisburg.

"For participating students across Pennsylvania, this mock trial competition is more than an academic exercise," said Alaina C. Koltash of Harrisburg, chair of the association’s Young Lawyers Division. "These students will gain a working knowledge of our justice system, plus successful dispute resolution techniques, and valuable presentation, critical-thinking and teamwork skills that will serve them well throughout their lifetimes."

During the competition, eight-member student teams are given the opportunity to argue both sides of the case in an actual courtroom before a judge.

Students, who play the roles of lawyers, witnesses, plaintiffs and defendants, are assisted by teacher coaches and lawyer advisors in preparing for competition. Lawyers and community leaders serve as jurors for the mock trials. Juries determine the winners in each trial based on the teams’ abilities to prepare their cases, present arguments and follow court rules.

The winning team of the state championship will represent Pennsylvania in the national mock trial finals to be held May 16 through May 18 in Athens, Georgia.

The Pennsylvania Bar Foundation, the charitable affiliate of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, is providing funding support for the statewide competition.

This year’s hypothetical case is a criminal jury trial in which the defendant, a local pain management doctor, is accused of prescribing opiate painkillers outside the realm of normal medical practice, resulting in the overdose death of his patient.

The case was written by Jonathan A. Grode of Philadelphia, Paul W. Kaufman of Philadelphia, Koltash and Talia Charme-Zane, an alumna of the Pennsylvania mock trial program and former captain of the Central High School team in Philadelphia.

For more information about the 2019 Pennsylvania Bar Association Statewide Mock Trial Championships and to read this year’s case, visit the Mock Trial Competition website here.

Interested volunteers should contact Maria Engles of the Pennsylvania Bar Association at (800) 932-0311, extension 2223.

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