North’s Mock Trial team participated in the state competition at Springfield Community College from March 13 to 15. Mock Trial is a club where students compete in a court-like setting, put themselves in the positions of attorneys and witnesses and scrimmage with other schools.
“What you do in a mock trial is compete against other schools, and you get a case at the beginning of the season,” said Lori Keough, Mock Trial adviser “You have to prepare both the sides of the prosecution or the plaintiff and the side of the defense.”
The Mock Trial team meets on Monday and Wednesday after school from September to the end of their season in March, before spring break. At this time, the team practices against other schools with various cases for prosecution and defense.
This year, the club participated in three different tournaments: one in Lake County, another in Rolling Meadows and one in the Kane County course. Members were recognized in these trials, and one North member who was recognized was freshman Madeline Atkinson.
“I didn’t join with the intention of going into legal stuff, but as the season went on, I realized that it was something I liked to do,” said Atkinson, who was recognized as the Best Witness two times during the season, as well as at state.
For state, the team headed down to Springfield to compete against 50 other teams. Friday was spent practicing their cases among themselves until the actual competition on Saturday and Sunday. On those days, the team headed down to the community college, and they presented their cases in front of a judge and a jury. The jury was made up of lawyers, judges, bailiffs and ISBA members.
“The best part of the state was us being together,” said Keough. “Mock trial is a very close-knit group because you go through so much as a team.”
When competing at the state level, only the top 10 teams are announced in no particular order. The rest of the teams do not get to know their rankings, but members get recognition and awards for their hard work and presentations, with their cases being the top 25 lawyers and witnesses overall.
“We won a lot of awards, and many of our members got awards, so that was good overall,” said Atkinson. “I learned a lot about how the legal system works, objections and how to present myself in the courtroom.”
