The Courtroom Journalist Contest allows students to experience a courtroom setting from the perspective of a news reporter and learn about the American legal system from actual judges and attorneys. Through the voice of a newspaper reporter reporting on a criminal case, students observe and report on their schools mock trials. Students have 24 hours to submit an article depicting the courtroom trial.
Download: PDF of Rules| Scoring Guidelines |Sample Journalist Article|Reporters' Handbook
Contest Rules and Procedures
- All journalists must be affiliated with a registered LA County Mock Trial team and enrolled at the team’s school.
- All journalists must be on the team's registered list, pay a $35.00 registration fee, and submit a student waiver & release form by October 4th. The student waiver & release form authorizes the publication or reprinting of the Courtroom Journalist Contest submissions for educational purposes. No financial compensation will be awarded.
- All journalists must write their articles based on their team’s Round 2 trial.
During Round 2:
- May sit in the jury box away from the scoring panel if there is room.
- Introduce themselves to the presider during the team's introductions - identify themselves as the courtroom journalist.
- Once journalist is in the courtroom, they may not have any contact with anyone from their team (parents, tachers, or fellow students). Journalist must draft your article completely independently.
After Round 2:
- All journalists must type their articles. Typed submissions must be a 12 point Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins, and double-spaced. The article may not exceed 850 words, excluding the journalist's name and team code.
- Submitted articles should be in the voice of a reporter covering a criminal trial. Journalists may not use dictionaries and thesauruses during the trial, but they may use them in completing their articles.
- Journalists must submit their article as a WORD or PDF format. File name must be saved with journalist's name and team code only.
- All contestants must emailed their articles to daisy@teachdemocracy.org by 6:00pm on:
- November 13 for the high school entries
- November 15 for the middle school entries
Journalists may refer to the Los Angeles Mock Trial case materials, the Journalism Reporters Handbook, and the Judging criteria during the contest.