We are in need of judges for a collegiate mock trial tournament taking place on Nov. 22nd & 23rd at the University of California, Irvine.
You can sign up to judge by clicking HERE.
***MCLE Credit Hours: The State Bar of California has approved a measure to allow attorneys to get up to two (2) hours of participatory MCLE credit for serving as a volunteer judge at a mock trial competition. Each of our trials last up to three hours, so judging even one trial can both help our students AND help you earn two participatory credit hours.
The trials: The trials are approximately three hours long and require no preparation. There will be two days of trials, both consisting of a morning round from ~9:00 to 12:00 PM and then an afternoon round from ~2:00 to 5:00 PM. Depending on your availability, you can judge as many or as few as you would like.
Presiders needed! For this November tournament, all trials will have a single judge. That means all participating judges will be asked to preside over the rounds -- interacting with students, making rulings on objections and moving the trial along, in addition to scoring the trial.
If you'd like a refresher on judging, don't worry -- we'll provide a judge orientation session before each round (described below). Or, if you'd prefer NOT to preside, we're also recruiting judges for our winter tournament, which will have a second, non-presiding scoring judge in each round. If you'd prefer to do that event instead, you can sign up for the winter tournament through the same link above.
The case: This year’s case is a criminal matter about the death of a reality TV game show contestant, Rob Armstrong. His death occurred during the filming of the game show called The Saboteurs. Mr. Armstrong's fellow contestant, Charlie Martin, was later indicted for murder. Prosecutors allege the defendant killed Mr. Armstrong by tampering with scuba equipment and creating dangerous conditions for Armstrong during an underwater challenge. The defendant has pleaded not guilty. The evidence and witnesses available vary across the rounds, which makes each trial unique and interesting to watch.
Judge orientation: Before each round, we will hold a 30-minute judge orientation session. In that session, we will explain how to judge the trials, how to score the trial ballot, and other logistics. No other preparation is needed to judge (i.e., you don’t need to read any part of the case ahead of time).
Judge check-in will open 30 minutes before the orientation session, making morning check-in at 8:00 AM and afternoon check-in at 1:00 PM each day. During both days of the trials, we will be providing bagels, coffee and lunch.
Here's the link to sign up for our tournaments this year: https://forms.gle/HQ1kFvNiv7UufH5F7
