Hawaii Mock Trial

FAQ's

1. Q: Can schools field more than one team?
A: Yes.

2. Q: The application says there must be a minimum of 10 students on the team but the rules say 5-10. Can you clarify?

A: We apologize for the confusion. We are trying to avoid problems in the past of there being too few students to compete and forfeitures. The rules are going to be changed as follows: Teams must have a minimum of 7 members and a maximum of 12. Only participating team members need to show up on competition dates.

3.    Q: Are home school students allowed to participate?

A: If they are attached to a specific DOE or other school then they can participate with that school. Otherwise no.

4.    Q: Can the attorney refer to the family of the complaining witness during the opening statement?

A: Whether pointing out the family members is up to your interpretation of the rules, whether the judge will allow it, and whether the opposing team has a supportable objection.

5.    Q: What’s up with the robbery charge?

A: That’s part of the fun of mock trial. Prosecution has to try and support it and defense has to try and eliminate it.

6.    Q: How does the competition work, is it a round robin tournament

with team with the best win-loss record advancing, or is it a single elimination tournament?

A: Depends on numbers of schools entering and availability of courtrooms and judges.

7.    How does the scoring work, do you use the standard scoring sheets

where students are ranked from 1-10 and a lawyer is scored for opening/closing, direct, and cross; and the witness receives both a direct and cross examination score?

A: There are standard scoring sheets.

http://www.hsba.org/resources/1/YLD%20Docs/MockTrial_SY%202010-11/Scoresheet.pdf

8.    Q: Is there a minimum number of attorneys for each side of the case?

A: Please see Rule 3.2, 3.3

http://www.hsba.org/resources/1/YLD%20Docs/MockTrial_SY%202010-11/Mock%20Trial%20Rules.pdf

9.    Q: When were the affidavits written? What is the doctor’s name?

A: Rules 2 through 2.5 of State of Hawaii Rules of the Mock Trial Competition contain the answer for these questions involving filling in missing factual information.