Sanford High School's Mock Trial Team Website
The 2009 season finished in high drama as Sanford competed for the state championship for the first time in its 15 years of participation in the Maine High School Mock Trial Program. Sanford faced the defending champion, Hampden Academy, which had not lost a match in more than six years. The presiding judge noted before announcing his decision (and that of his two attorney evaluators) that they did not know before retiring to tally their scores who had won; it was that close. He explained that Sanford had lost a very close match, and the other evaluators agreed that it was one of the closest matches they had scored.
Last year, Sanford had a much smaller team, having lost six seniors and one junior from the prior year's team and gaining only two new members. Still, we reached the state semi-final round (Western Maine championship) where we lost a close match to Cape Elizabeth, which we defeated in 2009 to reach the state championship round. Here's a link to last year's case materials and a listing of our matches:
Competitions
Oct. 18 at 12:00 v. Cheverus at Biddeford District Court (win)
Oct. 28 at 8:30 v. Bonny Eagle at Springvale District Court (win)
Nov. 4 at 11:00 v. Berwick Academy at Biddeford District Court (win)
Nov. 10 at 11:00 v. Kennebunk at U.S. District Court in Portland (win)
Nov. 15 at 11:00 v. Deering at U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Portland (win)
Dec. 3 at 11:00 v. Cape Elizabeth at U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Portland
Competition Structure
A single elimination system is used for mock trial competitions. Except for scrimmages and round one wildcard selections, teams must win their match to advance to the next round. Each match consists of two 90-minute trials. In the first trial, we present either the prosecution or the defense, depending on a coin toss. In the second trial, we present the other side. In each trial, three judges score each individual's performance, whether as a lawyer or as a witness, with a range of 1 (poor) to 10 (excellent). On each judge's score sheet, the individual scores are totaled, and the team with the highest score wins that judge's vote. Each score sheet represents a ballot. The winner of the match is the team that garners the most ballots. If the judges' ballots split 3-3, the winner is the team with the highest cumulative score. In the unlikely event that the cumulative scores are tied, the presiding judge decides the winner of the match.