On Jan. 22nd at the St. Louis County Courts in South Central Missouri, the Mock Trial Team will compete against Clayton High School at 6 p.m. For this competition three teams will be competing that day; one of the teams will feature junior Luke Coffman and seniors Uma Upamaka and James Strubble. Along with their other four team members, their objective is to present the plaintiff case for Adventure Holdings LLC vs. Kennedy O’ Neil. In this negligence case, their role will be proving the water park, Adventure Holdings was guilty of Kennedy O’Neil’s sons death for the malfunction. 

“ Basically you’re playing out a real scenario, you get the depositions and evidence, and you use that as you want,” Upamaka said. “ There’s going to be four lawyers and three witnesses, and then a judge and two jury people are the evaluators.” 

The preparation for a Mock Trial requires studying of the case given and being able to role play as best possible so that the case is convincible to the judges and jury. Practicing closing and opening statements is something that the team members have to rehearse after school for about one to one and a half hours. 

“ Cases are released in late October by the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis,” Strubble said. “ We have a month to prepare for two preliminary rounds, and then regionals, then state nationals. We placed third at state last year, we have always been able to make it to state.” 

The team has gained experience with the time they have been participating in Mock Trial competitions with year after year of practice. 

“ I think we’re pretty prepared, we have the most experienced lawyers and witnesses,” Coffman said. “ I think it’s a lot of fun to compete, just to be with you friends and to have a good understanding of how the legal system works.”