Area High School Students Take to the Courtroom

Students from and will show off their legal skills Tuesday.

Two teams from PWHS and one from GA are participating in the state’s Mock Trial program at the courthouse. The event, sponsored by the county Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section, is in its 28 th year and will feature 32 teams from around the county.

During the competition, eight-member student teams are given the opportunity to argue both sides of the case in an actual courtroom before an actual sitting judge from Montgomery County’s Court of Common Pleas. 

The students will play the roles of lawyers, witnesses, plaintiffs and defendants, and will be aided by teacher coaches and lawyer advisors in preparing for competition.  Lawyers, law office staff and community leaders serve as jurors for the mock trials. The juries determine the winners in each trial based on the teams' abilities to prepare their cases, present arguments and follow court rules.

This year's case is a civil action in which the plaintiff seeks an injunction to prevent the owner of a pharmaceutical plant from expanding its operations, arguing that an endangered species has allegedly been found on the land where the expansion is to occur.

The competition season runs through March.

According to the Montgomery Bar Association’s 2012 Young Lawyers Section Chair, Seth D. Wilson, Esq., over 100 Montgomery County judges, teachers and lawyers will volunteer their time again this year to prepare teams for competition and to judge competitions at the district level. 

For more information about the 2012 Pennsylvania Bar Association Statewide Mock Trial Championships and to read this year's case, go to the Young Lawyers Division's section of the PBA website at http://www.pabar.org. 

For District competition dates, times and results, please visit the Montgomery Bar Association’s website, http://www.montgomerybar.org. 

Those interested in volunteering as jurors in the upcoming weeks should contact Nancy Hagner at the Montgomery Bar Association at 610-279-9660, Ext. 208