14.1 TYPICAL COMPETITION REQUIREMENTS
The typical moot court competition requires a team of two or more students to complete an appellate brief and participate in a series of oral arguments. Competitors are usually provided a record of some kind, with varying amounts of factual and procedural information (e.g., depositions or affidavits, stipulations, complaints) and complete or excerpted “decisions below.” They must then write a brief and file it with the competition by a certain date.
Many competitions also require teams to file copies with the host of the competition and all of their potential opponents. Then, after some time to allow for practice arguments and for scoring of the briefs by the competition’s representatives, the teams gather for oral argument rounds.Unlike real-life attorneys, students in moot court competitions often argue both sides of the case, although they usually complete only one brief. The score in each round is typically based on a combination of the team’s brief score and oral argument score. In real life, the brief usually has much more impact than the oral argument, but in most moot court competitions, the oral argument is worth a higher percentage of the score. That said, however, the brief score is often dispositive: If the brief scores are spread over a broad range (as is common), the close oral argument scores that are awarded in many rounds can mean that the brief score will determine the winning team.
The requirements as to faculty participation vary; usually, the amount of outside help the students may receive during the briefing process is more limited than the help available after the brief is turned in. Sadly, some competitions even limit the amount of help students may receive during practice arguments. For many students, the learning that takes place during these practice arguments is invaluable. They learn not only about their own case, but also, by listening to the stories the practice argument judges tell about their reallife experience with cases of this type, they learn much about the practice of law.
Thus, if you have a choice as to which competitions your school may enter or as to which team you wish to try out for, you may want to review the rules of the competitions you are interested in or talk to the coaches to see which competition’s rules will give you the best learning experience.Once you are on a team, your first task upon receiving the materials for the competition should be to read the rules with a highlighter. Although you will need to be aware of formatting requirements (e.g., typeface and page limit specifications), your first focus should be on the requirements as to (1) the type of assistance that may be given, and (2) when that assistance may be given. A typical requirement is that no assistance may be given until after the brief has been submitted.
Do not rely on your coach to read the rules for you. You are the one who will be competing, and you must know the rules intimately. They are your “rules of civil procedure” for the competition, and you need to be aware of how they operate. Of course, you can consult your coach to answer questions or to decide if it is necessary to ask the competition administrator to interpret a rule. But you, as a team member, must take ultimate responsibility for your role in the competition.