Moot Court Competition

Moot Court experience is highly respected and demanded among legal employers. Determining the difference between Mock Trial and Moot Court can be confusing at first. Mock Trial is a trial court level competition, and moot court is an appellate court level competition. The trial court is the first court to hear a case. At the trial court level questions of fact are decided. Thus, in a mock trial competition, you will focus on the facts of the case. However, in moot court you will focus on the law. After a case has been decided at trial, issues of law may be appealed to an appellate court.

For example, Bob was convicted under a sodomy statute. His guilt was determined at the trial court level. However, Bob may appeal the constitutionality of the statute under which he was convicted. The appellate court decides whether the statute was constitutional. A question for the appellate court might be whether the statute violates X’s right to privacy under the United States Constitution.

This time spent planning for this competition is greater than that of client counseling or negotiations. The teams are given a problem which is set up to include two separate issues so each team member has an issue. Although no brief is required for the First Year or the Fall Advanced competitions, each competitor should be prepared to argue both sides of his/her issue as teams will be on either side of the case in separate rounds of the competition. During the competition, team members will give oral arguments where team member tries to persuade the judge(s) of his/her point of view. The judge’s job is to play the skeptic and to question the competitors’ reasoning (aka: knowledge of case law) for their arguments.

For the purposes of this competition, two counselors comprise one team. Competitors are free to choose their own teammate, but if a competitor is unable to find a teammate, the Board may pair up two single competitors upon their request. The competition proceeds as follows:

1. Competitors sign up as a team in the Board office on the designated days.
2. Competitors attend a mandatory meeting given by the Moot Court committee.
3. The appellant (the one wishing to overturn the rule of law established by the lower court) speaks first.
4. The appellee (the one wishing to continue the lower court’s decision) speaks second.
5. The appellant is allowed a brief rebuttal after the appellee speaks (but the appellant must request such rebuttal at the beginning of the round).
6. The judge may question the arguments at any time during this round. Competitors should be prepared to cite cases that support their arguments.
7. Judges evaluate the success of the competitors based on knowledge of the law, performance in answering questions, speaking ability, persuasiveness, and courtroom demeanor reflected in the scoring sheet that follows.