Welcome!

This is the official website for the Dartmouth Mock Trial Society. This site describes who we are and what we do. We're excited to get visitors, so please feel free to look around the site and contact us if you're interested (mock.trial@dartmouth.edu).

Essentially, mock trial is pretty much what it sounds like. The American Mock Trial Association gives us a fictional case, including witness' accounts of what they saw. We prepare to argue as either the prosecution/plaintiff or the defense based on that information. We play both witnesses and attorneys, literally constructing the whole case and our strategy from scratch.

Being part of Dartmouth Mock Trial is both one of the most demanding and one of most rewarding experiences available to students of Dartmouth College. Mock trial is a blend of extemporaneous speaking, acting, and debating, all done within the context of a case and a courtroom. Many of our teammates have had experience in high school or have some acting training. We're always looking for witnesses with some flair, as they're often required to stay in character as quirky personalities-from senile physicists to Canadian hockey players. But many of Dartmouth's stars also joined the team with no previous acting experience or knowledge of mock trial and legal procedure.

Since Dartmouth is one of the few schools in the country that is completely uncoached, students do everything for the team, including organizing trips to tournaments, teaching newcomers about the Federal Rules of Evidence, deciding on team structures, and competing in up to four tournaments per year.

We are all extremely proud of what Dartmouth mock trial has accomplished. Dartmouth mock trial ranked in the top 15 teams in the nation last year, and we regularly qualify several teams to the national tournaments in exotic vacation spots like Des Moines, Louisville, and St. Petersburg.

And, of course, we do occasionally act like college kids. We have parties, dinners, etc... but we'll try not to bribe you to join us with fun and debauchery. It's a great group of people, and if you're a Dartmouth student, we encourage you to try out in the fall (wink wink)!

Dartmouth mock trial is incredibly thankful for the support of the Committee on Student Organization, the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy, the Dartmouth Lawyer's Association, and several private donors who help make it possible for Dartmouth mock trial to compete each year around the East Coast and at national tournaments.

We would also like to thank Megan Hamilton, who designed this fabulous web page and has been extremely dedicated to the society. She's our own personal bundle of smiles, who comes with a lot of computer science savvy as an added bonus. Thanks, Megan!

If you are a prospective student, a current student, a Dartmouth alum, or anybody else with questions about Dartmouth mock trial, please feel free to email us at mock.trial@dartmouth.edu. We're always happy to rave about how much we love the team.

Welcome to our website!