Law Court Fun

30 April 2015Joe B, Whittall '17

This past Saturday, the 18th of April, after weeks of selection and preparation, studying the case, watching videos of previous mock trials and preparing with our partners and lawyers, 18 Brentwood students travelled down to the Victoria Provincial courts, along with our coaches, to take part in the first Provincial Mock Trials competition in the last five years. It all started at the Regional Tournament at GNS, when the concept of a mock trial was presented to us after the award ceremony. At that point, not much attention was given to it, but after some weeks, when the idea was presented again in class, along with the package, a considerable number of students decided to try out for it. Those students had to read the whole case, and know it really well, so afterwards they could decide which position they were aspiring for: lawyers, witnesses or even the clerk. Based on a job interview style, mostly about their selected role, the characters in the package and the whole case, the most informed individuals were selected to form the two teams that would represent Brentwood at the tournament. After that, other tasks were assigned to us: lawyers had to write their opening statements, questions for all the witnesses, and closing statement. Besides Mr. Bryant and Ms. Steele, we also met with a lawyer, Mr. Rhone. He was extremely helpful, giving us plenty of advice and useful tips, generously giving his time to help us have a better understanding of what we were going to do. We met at 7:00 am to have breakfast, get the last arrangements done, and depart to Victoria at 7:30 to avoid the rush. We got to the Law Courts punctually at 8:20, giving us plenty of time to put our snacks and backpacks down, eat some chips, and put some make up on (Zeeshan was sporting a very convincing black eye). After a few minutes of waiting, the tournament started as we received a briefing of the procedures, the rooms where we would be debating and the schedule for the day. The rounds started promptly after that. The first round for my team started with the prosecution debating. It was close, with both teams doing a really good job in their statements and examination (shoutout to Zeeshan crying when being examined by the defense) and in the end the judge decided that we lost. After the first round, we had a long break where we could enjoy the other features of Law Day, such as a photo booth that looked like a mugshot, free cake and a Mock Trial of the snowman from the movie Frozen. Lunch was also provided, with drinks, pulled pork sandwiches and everyone’s favourite, potato chips. The second round resulted in an even more heated discussion, with a team formed by our Captains, Ibrahim S and Kevin D, debating against a team formed by students from St. Georges. It was a controversial round, with lots of objections coming from both sides, and in the end, we lost, again. It was then time to depart, listening to the classic free-style rapping by Ibrahim and Zeeshan, which is present in almost all our debate trips. Both our teams had excellent speakers, as well as well-researched witnesses, who were prepared and knew their character in depth. Since the tournament reaches out for both fields, it was a great academic experience for those interested in debate and in law and, most importantly, it was a lot of fun. Joe B, Whittall ’17

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