The mock trial team lost to Oliver Ames High School by a score of 76-88 at Brockton District Courthouse on 5th of February. The team was able to put forth a solid effort while performing against a strong opponent with leading performances from senior Martine Agusma and junior Jeremiah King. Despite that the team made a handful of mistakes and has several fairly new members to the team.

Adalisa DeCarvalho, a senior member of the mock trial team, explained her goal for the mock trial team. “One thing that I hope would happen before the school year is over is that the club finds new members, preferably younger kids who don’t have that many commitments outside of school. That would be great.”

In the team’s second year, they are focusing on improving and growing the program by making the team win in order to participate in the playoff round and developing solid student participants who would be able to successfully use the skills they learned from mock trial in the future. So far, the team finished with a final record of 1-2 with one trial being forfeited by the other school.

This year, the team struggled with a few issues. One being that the team had problems with attendance and plenty of inexperienced and new members to the team with the veterans having to explain what to do. Mr. Espie stated another issue of the club, “Overall our team is graduating seven of eight members, which will be a challenge for next year, but I think we will be able to reload the team with talent.”  

Last year, the team went 0-3 with only two of the matches being really close, however the team is willing to improve from past mistakes and achieve their goal of winning a mock trial.

The case for the match was a violation of contract insurance pay involving a controversial death that was allegedly a suicide. The plaintiff side proposed that the insurance company should pay because the cause of death was an accident while the defendant side had argued that the cause of death was suicide, so that the insurance company shouldn’t pay for a case that was voided by the cause of death through suicide.

The mock trial team is a club where students takes roles as lawyers, defendants, and witnesses in hypothetical cases to participate in state competition placed in simulated courtroom case situations. More than 1,000 students participate in the state competition with 100 lawyers from around the state that serve as judges and coaches in mock trials.

The team consists of five returning members from last year such as senior captain Adalisa Decarvalho, who takes the role as the lead attorney with senior Samantha DeSouza taking the role of attorney. They are accompanied by senior witnesses Veronica Chapel, Martine Agusama, and Makenzie Achard. The team also includes new members such as junior attorney Jeremiah King, senior attorney Jayla Fernandes, and senior witness Mikayla Delva.