How to Run a Mock Trial

Rachael Southern

My students are always intrigued to learn that I used to be a lawyer. Once they get past their inevitable first question (‘didn’t you used to get paid a lot more?’), the next thing they want to know is always, ‘what’s it like to be in court’? To seize on this excitement, I often run ‘mock trial’ exercises with my classes, and these lessons are amongst my favourite moments in teaching.

The benefits of mock trials

Turning a lesson into a mock trial gives your students an experience outside of their normal routine which will stick in their memory. It might even spark an interest that inspires a career choice.

The process engages many core literacy skills: reading closely for a purpose, writing an argument, oral presentation and listening skills. A mock trial gives students first hand experience of a real-life application of these skills, which makes tangible how what we do in school is preparing them for future life.

Choosing a case

The first thing that you need is a suitable case. The mind often jumps to criminal cases but there’s also good scope to explore civil law case studies such as family, employment, or civil litigation.

The charity Young Citizens provides a mock trial pack on its website which is an ideal starting point as it gives you a tried and tested fact pattern and witness statements. It also has useful explanations of courtroom roles and terminology.

Another possibility that would work well for citizenship lessons is to mimic high profile cases in the news such as the Coleen Rooney vs Rebecca Vardy, ‘Wagatha Christie’ case.

You can look for opportunities to fit a mock trial into your subject curriculum. In my English department, we include one at the end of Year 7 as part of our Crime and Punishment scheme. We also put the Birling family members on trial when studying An Inspector Calls in Year 10.

There are great opportunities to utilise mock trials in other subjects. In history, you could replicate a trial of a significant historical figure. In geography, you could explore cases where large corporations or even governments have been sued for their contributions to climate change. In religious studies, you could explore cases linked to ethical issues such as assisted suicide.

Trial structure

I allow one or two lessons for preparing the case and then one lesson for the trial.

To keep the trial manageable within a lesson, I would suggest the following running order:

1. Opening statement from the prosecution/claimant
2. Opening statement from the defence
3. Prosecution/claimant questioning of own witnesses
4. Defence cross examination of prosecution/claimant’s witnesses
5. Defence questioning of own witnesses
6. Prosecution/claimant questioning of defence witnesses
7. Prosecution/claimant closing statement
8. Defence closing statement

You can split the class into eight groups to prepare each of these elements.

Lesson materials

Students will need:

1. A fact pattern setting out the circumstances of the trial.
2. An explanation of the relevant legal test including any defences and anything the court might consider in mitigation (either when sentencing in criminal or awarding damages in civil cases).
3. Witness statements or any other documentation to consider as part of the trial such as police reports, contracts, or correspondence.

Preparing for trial

In the preparation lesson(s), I guide students through these steps:

1. Reading the facts and evidence.
2. Making a timeline of the events.
3. Making a table of evidence helpful for the prosecution/claimant and evidence that is helpful for the defence.

Each group can then prepare their own element of the trial: either an opening or closing statement or a list of questions for their witnesses.

Modelling and scaffolding  

The tasks involved in preparing for and taking part in a mock trial are complex involving multifaceted skills, so it is important to provide support.

I recommend that the teacher models the process of going through a piece of evidence, applying it to the legal test and highlighting information that is helpful/unhelpful to your side of the case.

In my experience, students find cross examination particularly hard. Students in these groups need to probe the other side’s witnesses looking for holes in their evidence. Watching YouTube videos of effective cross examination can help students to conceptualise what they are aiming for. Question stems can also help such as, ‘is it not true that…’  or ‘you said …  but Y said …’

You can also provide students with model examples of opening and closing statements and success criteria or writing frames for each task.

The oral presentation skills should also be modelled, either by the teacher or using videos of real lawyers (or even better a guest lawyer to live model).

Running the trial

On the day of the trial, you can assign special roles such as judge, clerk, and the witnesses. Students, teachers or TAs or guest lawyers could play these parts. Asking the class’s Head of Year to come in to be the judge often goes down well!

I like to have a script that tells the judge and the clerk what to say to progress the trial. Students enjoy little touches like ‘all rise for the judge’ or swearing in the witnesses.

There are different options for how to conclude the trial. You could have the whole class vote on the outcome or have just a jury or judge decide which side they are most convinced by. You could then also debate the appropriate sentence (in criminal cases) or damages (in civil cases).

Finally, make sure to ‘commit to the bit.’ The more you do to create a sense of occasion the better: encourage everyone to stay in character, rearrange the furniture into a courtroom layout, and raid the drama department for barristers’ wigs and gowns!

I hope this has given you some inspiration to try out a mock trial in your own classroom. I genuinely believe that if you do your students are in for a memorable and meaningful experience.

Rachael Southern is Key Stage Three Progress Lead for English in a comprehensive school in Manchester. She is a former solicitor and acted as her firm’s Schools Outreach Officer running mock trials and legal workshops for visiting students.