Lodi High School Mock Trial Team 1 celebrates their first-place finish on Feb. 11 at the regional tournament in Juneau. From left: Front row – Zach O'Connor and Ian Seidler; back row – Amanda Crowder, Heather Quale, Alison Klann, Emily Oetzman, Ashley Streeter, and Elizabeth TenBarge; missing: Kristin Nachreiner.

Feb. 15, 2017 – Students from 24 Wisconsin high schools are advancing to the High School Mock Trial semifinals after competing in regional events across the state.

A total of 116 teams competed Feb. 11 in regional trials of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s 34th Annual High School Mock Trial Competition. The teams traveled to regional trials in 12 courthouses around the state to participate in the State Bar program that started in 1983 and continues strong today.

The winning teams will compete in the semifinals, beginning with four trials March 11 at the Dane County Courthouse in Madison. The top two teams will go on to compete in a final round March 12 in the Wisconsin Supreme Court courtroom.

The state finalist team will represent Wisconsin at the National Mock Trial Championships in Hartford, Connecticut, in May.

The mock trial program provides high school students with an opportunity to act as attorneys and witnesses in a court case developed by State Bar members. This year’s students – in teams of six to 12 – unravel a civil case.

Each team appeared before a panel of volunteer lawyer judges on a Len Bias case, drafted by members of the State Bar Mock Trial writer’s committee, in which a young man with a fragile health condition overdosed on an opioid potentially supplied by a friend.

The Mock Trial program is funded by a generous grant from the Wisconsin Law Foundation, the charitable arm of the State Bar of Wisconsin, supporting law-related education and public service programs statewide.

2017 Mock Trial Regional Winners

The teams finishing first and second in each region will compete in the semifinals. They include: