On February 25th and 26th, the Littleton Mock Trial team competed in their annual regional tournament. Every year, members get a fictional case problem in October and prepare it during practices until February. This year, the case problem was titled “Dakota Weirs vs. Lush Fertilizer Inc,” a lawsuit about Weirs getting cancer from their job at Lush Fertilizer. Members work together in teams of six to ten to form their parts before performing to a judge and scoring panelists at competitions. The team would typically complete in court rooms to further simulate a real trial but had virtual competitions due to COVID.
The team began their competitive season at the “Boulder Battle” which is a scrimmage hosted by University of Colorado, Boulder. Junior Bella Borrego earned a 3rd place lawyer award at the scrimmage, an impressive award considering the tough competition the team faced. Borrego joined Mock Trial because she wanted to be a lawyer and stayed because she enjoyed the activity, adding that “We have a really good community,”
Members then prepared for their regional tournament which is a process of working together to finalize materials. Club president and senior Whitney Winslow spoke about the preparation process,
“We have meetings weekly and we read over our case that we get assigned to us, come up with questions, write opening and closing statements, and work with our witnesses on formulating their characters.”
The hard work that the team put in to prepare for regionals paid off with Littleton’s A team earning 8th place overall, the highest that the team has ever finished. The team also won various awards for their work as witnesses and lawyers with member Grant Hawerlander winning “Best Skyler Weirs” which means that he ranked the highest of all other witnesses that played that part.
The team has high aspirations for the future and hopes to have more members from a variety of backgrounds join next year. When commenting on what type of people would be interested in Mock Trial, Winslow said
“Anyone that’s interested in acting and being a character or even interested in law, along with arguing and debate,”
Borrego added that “It’s great if you’re interested in law or debate but want to do something that’s a lower time commitment,”
Even if someone is not interested in the law aspects of the club, Winslow comments that there’s valuable learning opportunities from being a member,
“Everybody’s super friendly to each other, it’s been awesome and a lot of fun. I think it’s really fun and rewarding even if you’re not interested in law because you learn a lot about the legal system and how it works. If there’s ever a high profile case, you can understand what’s going on so I think it’s interesting if you like true crime,”