General Information and Organizational Meeting:

Whether you are a first time Mock Trialer or an experienced practitioner of Mock law, please come to this meeting so that your name can be added to our list, and you can be assigned to an initial team for Duke Mock Trial. This meeting will provide general information about the happenings of Duke Mock Trial. It will also be a chance for any questions that you may have for the officers of the club, or the current members of the club.

In the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) handbook, the beginning of the preamble to the rules of procedure reads as follows: 

The purpose of mock trial is to educate the youth of America about our legal system, our jurisprudence, and the work of attorneys. To that end the educational function in all of our activities is primary, and any competitive aspect of mock trial is secondary. The ideals of fairness, civility, and justice should guide our actions.

To this end AMTA sponsors regional and national competitions between schools to encourage undergraduate students to participate in Mock Trial. For those unfamiliar with the activity, it is essentailly debate in a legal forum. Opening statements are presented followed by direct and cross examinations of witnesses, and the proceedings end with closing arguments. Objections and the adhearance to the rules of court are of the utmost importance and provide teams with additional strategic decisions to make. Witness choice is up to the team, and teams must be ready to face a number of witnesses in competition. In the end, the success of the team depends on teamwork and the students' ability to think on their feet.

The Duke Mock Trial program is a competitive Mock Trial program for undergraduate students at Duke University. With the above stated goals in mind, Duke Mock Trial attempts to provide a cooperative atmosphere for the education of the undergraduates in the normal procedures of the American Legal System. 

Phase I (Late September): All students who have come to the first meetings or signed up on the interest list (available at the September meeting) will be invited to skills tryouts in order to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each student.

Purpose: This portion of the tryout is simply to match individuals with strengths in a particular area with others who are weaker in that area and vice versa in hopes of allowing all interested students the most benefit from their Mock Trial experience.

Phase II (Late September): All students who have tried out in Phase I will be assigned to evenly matched teams with expereinced Mock Trialers (or Mockers as some like to call us). 

Purpose: These teams have the express purpose of teaching effective techniques of preparing directs, crosses, opening statements and closing arguments. These teams are set up to teach all those students interested in Mock Trial, as much as possible. This process is a learning process and communication and practice is essential.

Phase III (Late October): The initially formed teams will compete against each other in intramural competitions which will be judged. From the scoresheets, new teams will be formed according to strength of performace in the inital rounds. Thus, the strongest members will be put on the top team and so forth. It is the goal of Duke Mock Trial to accomadate all who are interested on some team. In past years we have had four different teams compete at regionals. There are normally 8 people on a team.

Phase IV (November-February): The above mentioned power-ranked teams prepare for and compete in Invitational and Regional competitions. After Regionals, if a bid to Nationals is won, the teams are again re-shuffled according to strength of performace at regionals and who is able to attend Nationals. 

Phase V (March/April): National Competition in Des Moines, Iowa.

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