The Elizabethtown College Mock Trial club participates in the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) program. AMTA was founded in 1985 by Dean Richard Calkins of Drake Law School.

Through the program, college level students are able to engage in trial simulations in competition with clubs from around the country and develop critical thinking and public speaking skills. The program also fosters knowledge of legal practices and procedures. AMTA provides Mock Trial materials and competitions for over 5,000 undergraduate students every academic year. Many colleges across the country have mock trial teams or clubs, including Gettysburg College and Penn State University.

“Mock Trial is a simulated court experience where students receive a realistic case and then they have to act as witnesses and attorneys while developing a case theory and strategy,” senior Erin Krause said. “The team then competes against teams from other schools in tournaments.”

Krause is the vice president of the Mock Trial club this year and currently plays two roles on the Mock Trial’s A team. “I play both the defendant in our current case and an expert witness,” she said. “In past years, I have played an attorney, but I prefer to play in a witness role.”

When senior Dani Mitchell participated in Mock Trial two years ago, she acted as both a lawyer and a witness for two different sessions. “My favorite was as a lawyer because you got hands-on experience of what it is like in a court room and gained skill in outside-the-box thinking when you try to trip up the other team’s witness,” Mitchell said.

Paula Burke, adjunct faulty in the department of politics, philosophy and legal studies and the Etown Mock Trial coach, said she became involved with the club three years ago when the former coach Magisterial District Judge Jayne Duncan was looking for a replacement. “As a coach, I teach the academic portion of the class (PS 301 in the fall/ PS 302 in the spring) and also coordinate the logistics for the club, such as tournaments, travel arrangements, et cetera,” Burke said.

AMTA sponsors several regional and national-level competitions. Last fall, the club participated in three tournaments with Burke: the Penn State and Temple Tournaments and Etown’s own Blue Jay Invitational tournament.

There are different levels of these tournaments. At invitationals, the clubs can try out new case theories before regionals. The Blue Jay Invitational takes place in the Hoover Center. Some of the nearby schools, such as Gettysburg College and Dickinson College, attended to compete. “It’s usually pretty neat to see how other schools’ teams look at the case and see how they try to present the facts,” Mitchell said.

In the spring semester, all the mock trial clubs in an area compete in a regional tournament. This year, the regional tournament will take place in Baltimore, Md. “The top few teams from each Regional tournament move on to compete in the next round,” Krause said. “The judges at these tournaments can be real judges, attorneys or law school students.”

To prepare for competitions, the club holds scrimmages against each other, splitting up into an “A” team and a “B” team. There is a morning session and an afternoon session on both Saturday and Sunday, and these tournaments typically last most of the weekends on which they are held. Each session, or “round,” takes place over the course of two to three hours. Over the course of any given day of a tournament, the Etown mock trial club competes for a total of five to six hours, or two rounds.

Krause got involved in Mock Trial when she was in high school. “I was interested in pursuing a career in law, and a teacher of mine suggested that I join our team,” she said. “I enjoyed it a lot, so I decided to join again in college.” She has been a member of the Etown Mock Trial club since her first year at the College.

Mitchell said she got involved in Mock Trial because it was a two-credit class each semester and so did not force her to overload credits, but was also something that allowed her the chance to do something fun.

Burke’s favorite part about coaching the Etown Mock Trial club is working with the students and watching them learn and improve.

“My favorite part of Mock Trial is getting to spend time acting out the case with friends,” Mitchell said. “It’s dramatic, serious, goofy and fun all at the same time.”