DLA Weblog

D's Mock Trial Scores in Des Moines

Hanover, NH - For the first time in school history, Dartmouth Mock Trial Society has placed in the top ten in the American Mock Trial Association National College Championships in Des Moines on April 8-10th.

MTS Team Silver qualified for the national championship after placing second overall in the New England Regionals in February. Team Silver finished the national championship with an overall record of 5 wins and 3 losses. Sixty four teams competed in the Nationals, the highest level of intercollegiate competition in this sector. Dartmouth is among a few schools to qualify three teams to the national level competitions.

Led by captain David Rhinesmith '05, Team Silver delivered xceptional performances by mock attorneys Rhinesmith, Victoria Corder '05, Sean Miller '05, and witnesses Terri-Anne Segovia '05, Michael Ellis '06, and Jessica Taub '08. After losing in the first round to University of Chicago, Dartmouth rebounded to sweep Gonzaga in the next round. In the third round Dartmouth was matched up against Drake University (Iowa), where college mock trial was born and reared. In a controversial decision, Dartmouth spilt the round with the local team.

Matched up against Drake again in the fourth round, Team Silver won both final ballots. With an overall record of five wins and three losses, Dartmouth was ranked tenth in the Main division. Ellis received an individual award as one of the tournament's top witnesses.

In mock trial competitions participants prepare the roles of attorneys and witnesses based upon a fact pattern used nationwide and provided each year by a national governing body, the American Mock Trial Association. Students then try the case against teams from other colleges and universities by competing in regional and national-level tournaments. Rounds are judged by practicing attorneys or judges, and competitors are scored based upon the professionalism and effectiveness of the cases they present. The top teams from each tournament are given bids to the National Intercollegiate Tournament in either Florida or Kentucky and the National Championship Tournament in Des Moines. The winners of the Florida and Kentucky national tournaments are also given bids to compete in the National Championships in Des Moines, making the Des Moines competition the nation's most elite and competitive tournament. Competitions consist of four rounds with two judges each, for a total of eight potential "ballots" to win each tournament.

Dartmouth's Mock Trial Society and its competition teams are student-led and student-directed.

More information about the Dartmouth Mock Trial Society at: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~mtrial/