CAREERS: Aspiring lawyers have their day in court

Lower sixth form students SYD WILD and RAY CHO report on their experience of a mock bar trial which taught them a lot about the law

WE joined RGS’s Bar Mock society to compete in competitions and practise our advocacy skills.

For the Young Citizens competition at Leeds Beckett, there were two cases in which we had two teams competing for defence and prosecution.

The lead up to the actual competition was completely new and different.

As prosecution barristers on the drug case, we and our team were involved in attempting to convince the judge that the defendant was guilty of distributing drugs whilst the defence had to disprove this or provide adequate evidence that this was not the intention.

As a first experience of an actual bar mock trial, it was both difficult and an experience for a future competition. Having to learn all the new skills involved, such as creating lines of questioning and arguments for the case, all whilst trying to align with the rules for the competition such as using leading and non-leading questions, was a challenge.

In the weeks leading up to the competition we had the time in our society to practise and combine our resources.

Thankfully, we had the guidance of the upper sixth formers who had competed in multiple competitions last year and were able to inform us about what might happen.

Luckily, thanks to the wonderful Mr Walker offering us the opportunity to practise our cases at the intended venue a month early gave us an upper hand when it came to presenting.

When we finally came to the competition, we competed in three sessions with two sessions for one case.

The genuine case was very fascinating and interacting with other people was completely different in the court compared to practice.

Overall, as a group we gained vital experience for our advocacy skills despite not coming first.

RGS Mock Bar Society:
Isabelle Nelson
Crystal He
Juliet Pearson
Amélie Hills
Aiden Ng
Horatio Hartley
Ray Cho
Nicola Siu
Syd Wild
Siri Puthuraya
Xiao-Xi Hill