Students simulate courtroom experience

Most people want to avoid courtrooms, but the members of the Rutgers University Mock Trial Association are not most people.
The association recently placed second out of 23 teams at a competition held at Fordham University.
Attorney Craig Aronow of the New Brunswick law firm Rebenack, Aronow and Mascolo coaches the team and said while it was the team’s best finish, the result at Fordham could have been even better.
“While they finished second at Fordham, there is always some politicking that goes on at these competitions,” he said. “It was clear to me that they had won and were the best team at the competition.”
Rutgers College senior Alyssa DiSturco founded the association in 2005. Current Association President Meredith Neely said the group focuses on competitions where teams from schools around the country argue cases determined by the American Mock Trial Association.
She said the AMTA case for this year is a civil trial involving a politician suing a broadcasting company for defamation. Previous cases included a criminal trial involving a stabbing with an HIV-infected needle and a civil trial against a police department for excessive use of force, said Neely, a Rutgers College junior.
“The cases [provided by the AMTA] are often inspired by real events but contain a fictional fact pattern in the form of witness statements and evidence,” she said.
Mock trials, like real courtroom cases, are unscripted and participants are largely scored based on their abilities to think on their feet while maintaining composure, she said.
Aronow said the Association’s next competition is a regional one at St. John’s University from February 27 to March 1. From there, the teams that finish in the top eight move on to the national competition. He said he is confident the Association will be among them.
Neely said the team’s year-to-year growth has been amazing and expects the team to earn a bid to nationals.
Neely and Aronow said they believe the team will continue to improve in coming years because of some of their talented younger members.
“I think that this victory at Fordham is just the beginning of many,” Aronow said.
Neely said despite the team’s substantial progress since its inception, she hopes to begin hosting tournaments at the University within three years.

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