Practice mock trial cases

EPO also increases the blood viscosity, which can cause the blood to sludge and clog capillaries, resulting in a heart attack. This is a bifurcated trial on the issue of liability only; damages are not at issue. JML Properties, Inc. During the night and early morning hours of July , , while the Plaintiff attempted to sleep, the Plaintiff suffered numerous bed bug bites. The Plaintiff was employed as a news anchor and investigative reporter, who aired a news story on bed bug infestation occurring at one of the JML Properties.

The defendant also claims that the news story was defamatory and deterred potential guests from booking or keeping reservations at the hotel. As a result, the Defendant has sustained substantial financial losses. Tony Morganelli claims that an intruder charged into the restaurant after hours and demanded money from the register.

In the ensuing struggle, Tony claims that the restaurant burned down. Sandstone denied the claim, stating essentially that it believes the fire was set by Tony. They claim that when a local textile plant closed the restaurant lost a significant amount of business, and Tony burned the restaurant down to claim the insurance proceeds and defraud Sandstone. Town of Butler - Civil June 25, , was a quiet evening in Butler. Park County Schools had let out for the summer a few days before.

Now that summer had arrived, students were focused on daily jaunts to the beach, so close to the beach they could make a day of it and still be home by curfew. With Butler being a quiet jurisdiction, Sgt. DeShane spent most of the time dealing with traffic offenses and looking for the odd DUI case. With school letting out, the traffic citations went up, especially with students going back and forth to the beach and trying to beat curfew. As such, on Friday evenings like June 25, , Sgt.

DeShane parked on US Highway 52 facing southbound. In fact as the tone on the radar system indicated, it was accelerating.

Towards the other end of town, Christopher Neesen, the star soccer player from Butler High School was on his way home from a date after dropping off his girlfriend.

He was texting her on the way home. The pursuit coming up US Highway 52 at a high rate of speed arrived at the same time that he entered the intersection. The Dodge was crushed, killing Christopher Neesen. Coroner Matthews was called to the scene and pronounced Christopher Neesen dead on scene.

While under care at MUSC, Jamie Adams was charged with reckless driving, failure to stop for blue lights, and manslaughter.

All blood work was drawn at the time of the accident. During the criminal trial, Jamie Adams pled guilty in a negotiated plea to reckless driving, and failure to stop for blue lights. Manslaughter charges were dropped. Taylor Durden - Criminal The Greek and honors societies at Daniel Morgan University draw large numbers of students each year through their bid process. As a college predominantly in a rural area, these societies offer the social opportunities that cannot be found in the outside community.

Though the honors societies choose their members differently than the traditional Greek organizations, there still remains an honored ritual of bid, acceptance, and initiation.

As a University accredited honors society, they are by nature co-ed. ESE engages primarily in service related activities, although there is an optional pledge process, as well as social events.

Though not a traditional Greek organization, ESE has its own house through the generous philanthropy of an alumni member. ESE has all of the traditional roles as with Greek societies, like the chapter president, vice president, treasurer, social chair, education chair, and pledge master. Saturday, August 29, , was the last day in the pledge week for the ESE pledges. Throughout the week they had participated in various activities commonly referred to as the Pledge Olympics.

This included activities each day, such as wiffle ball in the back yard, quiz sessions on University and ESE history, and team building activities. What loomed before the pledges on that Saturday afternoon was made out by other members to be the most dreaded event — Water Jeopardy. Much like JeopardyTM, contestants provided questions to the answers that were on the board. Only instead of earning points it was to avoid chugging water.

Years ago ESE developed this as an alternative to forcing pledges to chug beer, which was clearly against University rules.

Against the wall in the basement of the ESE house was a row of normal office water coolers, all with five gallon water jugs. The penalty for a wrong answer was to drink for a time period that increased with the value of the question. Failure to put the answer in the form of a question necessitated an even longer drinking period. Pledges were told that they could not go to the bathroom while playing the game. Nursing student Tammy Canes who convinced Jessica Bateson to pledge with her got fed up with the treatment during Water Jeopardy and quit.

Additionally, Tammy said she learned in nursing classes that this was probably dangerous to all the participants. After consuming an excessive amount of water during Water Jeopardy, Jessica collapsed and appeared to have passed out. This scared the pledge master, pledges, and other members of ESE who were present. EMS and University Police responded. EMS found Jessica in an unresponsive state and transported her to the local hospital. Jessica Bateson died within two hours of the collapse without ever regaining consciousness.

From the initial investigation, Sgt. Chris Knight found no wrongdoing and concluded that Jessica simply collapsed while playing an ESE game. Further investigation prompted by the results of the autopsy, indicated that Jessica died due to a swollen brain stem brought on by acute hyponatremia from overconsumption of water. Pledge Master Taylor Durden was charged with involuntary manslaughter, and the lesser included offense of hazing. ESE Chapter President Alex Richards was granted criminal immunity and agreed to testify for the state, though civil suits are pending.

During high school KC became a DJ and delivered pizzas. KC Jones is not being accused of illegally downloading and distributing music by just any one.

Pat Cline has been called to testify against KC. KC denied having anything to do with downloading music and refused to pay half. They eventually made up. Since those occurrences, KC is now being sued for the same illegal activity. Chris Autry attends Eagles University pursuing a degree in computer science and works as a computer tech assistant for The Willow Dorm complex.

Chris helps people over the phone, goes to their dorms and even will meet students at various meeting places on campus to assist them with their computer needs. Winkies Food Corporation - Civil Throughout the history of the American judicial system, there have been a handful of cases that have captured the attention of the public, stirred debate both scholarly and pedestrian , and influenced changes in law and public policy. Often, the individuals involved in these cases are ripped from their lives of ordinariness and obscurity to become fodder for a media frenzy and insatiable public consumption.

Little did she know on that innocuous day in , when she bought a cent cup of coffee at the drive-thru window of her local McDonald's, that even today - seventeen years later - she would be vilified by some as the epitome of a money-grubbing Plaintiff bent on blaming someone for her self-inflicted misfortune and canonized by others as a stalwart underdog who stood up to greedy corporate America for ignoring grave danger its products pose to innocent and unsuspecting consumers.

Unfortunately, the truth gets lost in the mire of persistent rhetoric made only more intense with the birth of the blogosphere. The truth is that we have a system of civil justice in this country that rivals any other in fairness and due process. An injured person is given the opportunity to demonstrate to a jury of peers the facts that support a claim for compensation against the party that person believes to have wrongly caused those injuries.

Also part of this process is a judge, someone with knowledge of the law, who is charged with ensuring that both parties receive a fair hearing and that everyone?? Although there are some similarities to the famous case, the facts are significantly altered.

As with any mock trial case based on true events, it is important to remember that you are limited to the facts presented on these pages. This exercise is designed to teach you to not get distracted by the hype on the Internet or swayed by the rhetoric of the media when you consider the true facts of a civil dispute brought to our courts.

Civil cases are about real people?? And while history and the court of public opinion will always pass their own judgments, in this court, with this case, the parties will have their day and the jury will render its judgment. The biggest party each year was on Halloween, when a hooded and masked figure dressed as the Grim Reaper would ominously distribute drinks to certain guests at precisely midnight. The Grim Reaper became a staple at the Halloween parties and it always seemed like one person got a little too "out of control" after the visit from the Reaper.

Did paintball proprietor Chris Schultz engage in negligent conduct that made the game unreasonably dangerous? Did Jamie ignore posted safety instructions? Who is to blame? With permission from Iowa Mock Trial Program Brunetti It was the dawn of another day in the sleepy hamlet of Lakeville.

All around town commuters were filling their travel mugs, while children readied their backpacks for school. But there would be no school for Nicky Blanc or Jackie Potomski. Both lay dead on the basketball courts at Founders Park. Did Nicky single-handedly plan and carry out the murder of Jackie Potomski?

Or, was Shawn Burnett the mastermind, manipulating Nicky to do the dirty work? Adapted from Constitutional Rts. Nationally, students have found themselves suspended or expelled for infractions as benign as bringing a butter knife to school, or pointing a fun-shaped chicken strip at someone during lunch. But what if the threat came from a student with a disability? Under the amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, added in , procedures were established for schools seeking to discipline and remove a student with exceptional education needs EEN from this or her current educational placement or program.

Adapted from the State Bar of Wisconsin. Since grade school, his favorite part of any parade or halftime show was the beat of the drums. In the summer of , Chuck went to band camp on a mission… a mission to be accepted onto the line, and to enjoy all of the benefits of the increased social status that came with it. Chuck ended up dead after a fall from a foot clock tower. Case adapted from Street Law. Under normal circumstances, non-point pollution is a serious problem, but at times, the problem can be exacerbated and can result in tragic consequences.

A few days later three of the students became ill. William Mable, one of the students, died. Adapted from Wisconsin Case. Jamie Becker and Kim Hanks In the not-too-distant past, counterfeiting was a difficult and expensive endeavor. It required large printing presses and the ability to cut intricate designs by hand into metal plates. Today it is much easier to create counterfeit bills. As thousands of teenagers discover every year, you can create fake money with a PC, a scanner and a color inkjet printer in about 10 minutes.

You can also face very serious consequences. Fearing a larger problem, Upham had all employees educated on methods to detect counterfeit bills. Or were they? Kris Hamburg. Lawrence and the Clearwater Police Department Evan Brooks, a year-old honors student at Clearwater High School, went shopping at the local grocery late one night. So late, in fact, that Brooks had to be asked to finish shopping so that the store could close. What followed for Evan Brooks was almost six hours in police custody being searched, fingerprinted, and escorted to the courthouse in shackles.

After being release, Brooks spent an additional three to four hours in the hospital for pain and injuries sustained during the incident. Now Brooks is bringing a civil suit against the security guard, the store, and the police. Were the actions of the security guard, the store, and the police justifiable? Morgan Phillips Mitch Stevens was a basketball referee. Several controversial calls during the big game between in-town rivals made Mitch a very unpopular man with the fans of the losing team.

Morgan Phillips, head basketball booster, was seen arguing with Mitch after the game. Later that night, Mitch Stevens was found dead outside of his apartment building. Therefore, it must protect against the misuse of this rule. The difference between prejudicial and probative evidence is:.

Objection Capital is a new and somewhat complicated concept in Mock Trial. This is a skill that should only be used by expert Mock Trial teams. It is one of the less important skills in Mock Trial but it is helpful when competing against other high-level teams. Objection Capital noun — The amount of useful objections you can make in a single Mock Trial round. The act of optimizing the use of objections in a case-in-chief. Look over your chase-in-chief, practice against other teams, and understand critical rules of evidence.

Skip to content An Overview of Character Evidence Character Evidence is when testimony or evidence is used against someone to prove their character personal traits. No The reason why we have such rules is so that we do not prejudice the jury and piece together two facts. Rule Character Evidence and its exceptions are described under Rule It also offers exceptions. Full Text: Rule The Exceptions Rules a 2 — These exceptions allow character evidence to be used in a criminal trial.

You also must perform the following: prosecution must provide notice of evidence being offered at trial, before trial or during trial if the court excuses pretrial Rule Rule goes over the methods of proving Character Evidence.

For example, Josh is known for being an angry person. For example, Mike robbed a convenience store before. Rule Full Text: Rule A Witness Rule says that a witnesses credibility may be supported or attacked using character evidence if they truthful or untruthful.

These exceptions are: 1 these specific instances of conduct are only allowed when they are subjects of a criminal conviction 2 these specific instances of conduct can be talked about during cross-examination.

However, the only people allowed to talk about these specific instances are the: a the witness himself; or b another witness that was mentioned by the witness himself Rule Full Text: Rule The three other exceptions are described as: Rule c — If the convict is issued a pardon, certificate of rehabilitation or an equivalent procedure, the conviction evidence is inadmissible.

Rule and Rule These Relevance rules are very basic. Therefore, not much is needed to establish the relevance of the evidence being entered. Rules and Work Together — Rule is followed by Therefore, both rules work together.

Relevance is Dangerous — Relevance is a dangerous objection. This is because the side that brings up the relevance objection must substantially prove that the evidence being admitted is irrelevant. It also dangerous because it allows your opponent to explain their case-in-chief to the jury. Rule Rule is an extremely useful objection because it allows you to exclude evidence. The exact wording says: Rule Excluding Relevant Evidence for Prejudice, Confusion, Waste of Time, or Other Reasons The court may exclude relevant evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by a danger of one or more of the following: unfair prejudice, confusing the issues, misleading the jury, undue delay, wasting time, or needlessly presenting cumulative evidence.