The Mock Trial Club, run by seniors Gogod James and Marissa Laucirica, works collaboratively in preparation to go on trial with other schools in the district. 

Mock Trial Club has been a successful ongoing club since 2002. Originally, the club started out with only 10 students, and has since grown to be a club that requires a minimum of 18 members. Currently, the club consists of 19 students. 

The club initially became a great success during their 2007-2008 season when they won the case at the Placer County Mock Trial competition. 

“Mock Trial offers its members opportunities to work with real judges and lawyers, conduct in-depth logical analysis of the case to form lines of reasoning in favor of their client, and practice decision-making and problem solving when making rebuttals and objections of the opposing counsel,” James, president of Mock Trial, said. 

Sept. 26 was the first official club meeting. From then on, the team has the next five months to prepare for their trial. 

Mock Trial has the opportunity to go to county competitions after those busy months of preparation. At that competition, they will then go up against schools such as Rocklin and Del Oro. 

“…Rocklin is our rival and we’ve been neck-to-neck with them for the past two years,” James said. 

In previous years, Mock Trial has had interesting and complex cases to handle. 

“In 2021, we had a criminal case where a tenant allegedly planted a rattlesnake in the mailbox of their landlord, which ended up killing them,” James said, “after the landlord shut down the power connected to the oxygen tank of the tenant’s mother.”

The trials at county competitions last two days. During both days, two schools send two of their defenses to go up against each other, and then send two of their prosecution simultaneously.

“…there are a lot of nerves that go on before the competition,” Laucirica, the Vice President said, “…it’s really fun to just kind of like, relax and then reflect on the work that we’ve put in.” 

In order to keep up with everything, it’s extremely important for members – especially board members – to be present to every meeting. They put a significant amount of time into preparing for the trial, and have an exceptionally large amount of work to do in order to be ready for the competition. 

That being said, each Monday from 3:30 to 4:45, members get together in room 306 to discuss, plan, and research. Not only does the club need to prepare as a whole, but each individual member has an extremely important role that they need to be ready and responsible for. 

While the club is obviously for those who are interested in getting experience in going through a trial, it’s also extremely important that members have a focused mindset and have good communication skills, especially given the fact that they are getting ready for a major competition. 

“We expect members to work hard and try their best, but more importantly we want them to feel comfortable asking questions,” James said. 

Understanding everything going on is highly important, as the club offers a chance for students to get experience in specific roles in court. The officer roles are Head of Prosecution, Head of Defense, and Head of Witnesses. 

Other roles include Pre-trial lawyers, Prosecution and Defense lawyers, and Prosecution and Defense witnesses.

In order for the board to assemble an adequate team, after the initial meeting, there’s a process where students have to try out.

“…whoever we felt like, within the team, had the best skill set, basically made it onto the team,” Laucirica said. 

After the team has officially formed, the Mock Trial finally gets their new case. 

Now that the club officially has their team finalized, together they will begin preparing for the 2022- 2023 competition.

“The rest of the school can expect us to work hard with Ms. Morrsion and Coach Seley to prepare for competition and hopefully, beat Rocklin!” James said.