Washington Courts: Press Release DetailWho’s Responsible?: Teens battle in fictional lawsuit for state Mock Trial championship this weekendMarch 10, 2022
Hundreds of Washington state high school students will compete remotely this week as attorneys, witnesses, plaintiffs and defendants in a fictitious lawsuit involving an injured mountain biker and the question of who shoulders responsibility when something goes wrong. The YMCA Mock Trial State Championship will pit 24 high school teams from around the state against each other — presenting different sides of the tort case to judges and jurors — in the state finals competition March 10-13. Washington Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu will preside over the championship round between the top two teams, which will be streamed live by TVW on Sunday, March 13 at 11:30 a.m. Mock Trial allows students to participate in a true-to-life courtroom case based on true-to-life laws and legal proceedings involving witness testimony, evidence, attorney arguments, rulings by volunteer judges and ratings by attorneys serving as jurors. This year’s fictional civil case is based on a mountain biker injured on a commercial trail. “These concepts revolve around a simple idea — responsibility. When someone is harmed in our society, we have rules about who will bear the burden,” wrote Clark County Superior Court Judge Robert Lewis, who authored the fictitious case and who serves as chair of Washington’s YMCA Mock Trial program. “If you cause a loss to another, by doing something incorrectly, or by failing to do something you were supposed to do, you pay. But if someone voluntarily encounters a risk of harm or contributes to the damage by improper action or inaction, we may tell that person to bear the consequences,” Lewis wrote in the introduction to the case, which high school Mock Trial students begin studying at the beginning of the school year. “That, in a nutshell, is what the law of torts is all about.” For the state finals, student teams will engage in four rounds of remote competition over Thursday and Friday evenings and on Saturday, serving alternately as plaintiff or defense in the mock trials. Judges and attorneys from across the state volunteer throughout the four days to preside over the trials and serve as jurors, rating the teams. Teams competing in the Mock Trial championship competition include:
Mock Trial is part of the YMCA Youth & Government Program, which works to help young people experience democracy in action through both its Mock Trial and Youth Legislature programs. The Youth & Government program is in its 75th year of youth civic education programing. In Mock Trial, high school students take the roles of attorneys and witnesses and prepare the different sides of the case — prosecution/plaintiff and defense — for trial. They compete at district levels and then at state finals before real judges. “Juries" of attorneys rate the teams on their arguments and presentation, while presiding judges rule on motions, objections and ultimately the merits. Participants develop critical thinking and analytical skills, learn the art of oral advocacy, and gain understanding of law and the judicial branch. Also supporting the Mock Trial program are the Administrative Office of the Courts, TVW, the Washington Judges Foundation, the Pierce County Minority Bar Association, the Honorable Robert J. Bryan American Inn of Court, and the District and Municipal Court Judges’ Association. CONTACT: Amber Wetzel, YMCA Youth & Government Executive Director, awetzel@seattleymca.org, (360) 357-3475; Clark County Superior Court Judge Robert Lewis, Mock Trial State Program Chairman, Robert.Lewis@clark.wa.gov; or Lorrie Thompson, AOC senior communications officer, Lorrie.Thompson@courts.wa.gov, (360) 705-5347.
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