“If Your Honour pleases… We are in the semi-finals!”
“If Your Honour pleases… We are in the semi-finals!”
A group of Year 10, 11 and 12 students have been fine-tuning their legal thinking and argument skills since March to participate in the South Australian Law Society Mock Trial competition. A Mock Trial is a simulated court case in which the participating student teams contest a fictional legal matter in a mock Court.
St Aloysius was one of 16 teams this year and in order to reach the semi-final, the girls defeated very strong teams from Unley High School, Loreto College and Walford Anglican School for Girls to finish in first position! The semi-finals will take place in August.
In the first case, SAC presented evidence for the prosecution in relation to a break and enter charge, in the second case, SAC were the defence and successfully defended the accused of disorderly or offensive behaviour, and in the final round, the girls successfully argued for the respondent in a very tricky civil dispute relating to a promise made about the ownership of land.
The team consists of 2 barristers, 2 solicitors, 2 witnesses and a Sheriff’s officer/Judge’s Associate. Daniela Bagnato (Year 12), Alice Kearins (Year 10) and Cheyanne Sulaimany (Year 10) shared the role of barristers. Poppy Martin, Veronica Keane, Darcy Johnston, Chinoney Ojimba, Mackenzie Freer (Year 11) and Sienna D’Arcy (Year 10) played the role of witnesses, and together with Marina Monydeng (Year 11) and Erin Schofield (Year 10) as solicitors (other team members assisted as solicitors also) and Ellena Lay (Year 11) as Judge’s Associate & Sheriff’s Officer, the girls prepared and presented very persuasive arguments to defeat their opponents.
We thank old scholar, Jade Rapson, who is now working as a solicitor for the SA Government for helping the team make sense of the law, and Ms Sarunic for assisting the students in their preparation for each case.
“I have enjoyed meeting like-minded individuals who are also interested in legal cases. As a team, we have worked collaboratively on the cases, allowing for every member (no matter how active their role) to have an understanding of the cases we are participating in and how our team plans to approach them. Mock Trial has given me more confidence in my ability to apply legal terminology and concepts, allowing me to put what I learn in my Legal Studies lessons into practice.” Daniela B – Barrister/Solicitor
Ms Lucyna Zwolski
Legal Studies Teacher and Mock-Trial Coach
