On Friday, Jan. 13, the Kingswood Oxford Mock Trial team traveled to the Waterbury courthouse for their first competition of 2023. Unlike in past years, KO had two separate teams compete in the competition: an A team made up of more experienced students and a B team that welcomed members with no prior experience.
Each team is made up of a plaintiff side and a defense side. For this competition, the A team’s plaintiff side beat Miss Porter’s School, while the defense topped Xavier High School. The B team’s defense triumphed over St. Bernard’s but, unfortunately, their plaintiff fell to Fairfield Ludlowe, meaning that the B team was eliminated from future competitions. However, since the A team was successful on both sides of the courtroom, they will continue to compete in the subsequent rounds.
This year’s case, which the team received in September, was about a college student who ran for city council and lost by 49 votes. The student then went on to sue the registrar of voters for doing several things he thought sabotaged his campaign. Mock Trial Head Coach Lynne Levine explained what each side had to do. “So the plaintiff, that’s the one bringing the complaint, had to prove misconduct by this official, and the official defense had to prove that it wasn’t misconduct,” she said.
In order to attend these competitions, significant preparation is done by the participants. Starting at the beginning of the school year, the team holds meetings after school on Thursdays from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. During these meetings, the team works on their examinations and statements as they learn the details of the law in the case. “The best way to prepare is just to know your case theory, have your parts memorized, and then just get a general sense of what the other side is going to be arguing,” senior Co-captain and member of the A team Tess Chapman said.
The amount of preparation that members put in prior to the competition is one of the team’s strengths this year because it means that the students truly know the case when they take the stand in the courtroom. Furthermore, the students participating in the Mock Trial program are deeply passionate about it. “We attract some of the smartest kids,” Mrs. Levine said, “and they really are motivated because many of them either have a lawyer parent or are planning to do some kind of law work in the future or they just really love it.”
Throughout the competition, there were many students from both teams who had standout performances. One of these students was freshman Juliana Chipelo. Originally a member of the defense B team, Juliana had to step in as a member of the plaintiff B team when one of their members was absent due to COVID-19. Another standout at Friday’s competition was freshman Sam Lewis who read the closing statement for the B team. “He’s got such public speaking skills,” Mrs. Levine said.
Senior Co-captian and member of the A team thought that the A team had a great performance at their trials. “I think that the A team defense performed strongly despite having a difficult trial,” she said. “The B team also was able to showcase their knowledge against less experienced teams.”
Both sides of the A team will be competing again on Friday, Feb. 11, in the New Britain courthouse. Until then, the team will continue to practice and hopefully find success like they did last year. “I think that we’re heading for success in our next competition,” Tess said.
