Office of Communications and Public Affairs
2011-D Commerce Park Drive
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
410-260-1488

Media Advisory
Maryland Court of Appeals Hosts Mock Trial State Championship

(ANNAPOLIS, Md. – April 21, 2014) Two Maryland high schools will face off in the Maryland Court of Appeals when the state’s highest court hosts the 2014 Mock Trial State Championship Friday, April 25. Students will argue their cases before Court of Appeals Judge Robert N. McDonald in the Court of Appeals courtroom. The media are invited to attend.

Four teams will compete in the semifinals on Thursday, April 24, in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County in Annapolis. The teams are: Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Prince George’s County; Richard Montgomery High School, Montgomery County; The Park School, Baltimore County; and Franklin High School, Baltimore County. The next day, two of those teams, the winners of the semifinals, will present their cases before Judge McDonald in the Court of Appeals to decide the state championship.

The mock trial competition is sponsored by the Citizenship Law-Related Education Program (CLREP), in cooperation with the Maryland State Bar Association and the Maryland Judicial Conference. Each year, high school mock trial teams compete at least four times each in local matches. By the time a team has reached the state championship, it will have competed, on average, 10-12 times. Virtually all competitions are held in either District or Circuit courtrooms.

Since the competition began in 1983, more than 54,000 students from most counties in Maryland have participated.

The success of the mock trial competition depends heavily on volunteer attorneys and judges who coach teams and score competitions at local, regional, semifinal and final levels. Each year, several hundred attorneys, masters and judges across the state volunteer for this program.

# # #