Four Carroll students recently competed in one of the most difficult Moot Court regional tournaments in the nation, the Western Regional Invitational Tournament held at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) on November 21-22, 2014.
First-time competitors, senior Cori Losing from Cut Bank and sophomore Jack McCarthy from Great Falls, made a strong showing competing against tough teams during preliminary rounds. Returning team members, seniors Tyler Skidmore from Idaho Falls and Bobbi Owen from Hammond, advanced to the second day of competition ranking high enough to earn a bye round in the first outbound, advancing straight to the octafinal round (top 16 teams). They lost a close round on a split decision (3-2) to the CSULB team who ended up winning this year’s regional tournament and one member of the CSULB team they faced placed second at Nationals last year.
The Carroll College Moot Court Team is coached by Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Tara Harris, class of 2000. "I'm proud of the hard work the students put into this year's problem. They are very talented and deserve to be at Nationals,” said Harris. “I tell them every year there is a component we can't control at competition and that component is luck. Luck wasn't on our side as far as the team we faced that knocked us out, but we couldn't have lost to a better team."
Moot Court competition is the simulation of an appellate argument. Two-person legal teams compete in front of a panel of judges. Students argue a hypothetical legal case, which they have researched in advance of the competition. Moot court judges ask students questions and grade the students on the basis of their knowledge of the case and their response to questioning, in addition to forensic skills and demeanor.