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Pilot Pretrial Brief Writing Contest

A brief is another way attorneys present their arguments to a judge. Your pretrial brief should be written from either the perspective of the prosecution or the defense. You will use the pretrial materials provided (including the relevant facts and witness statements) to present a written argument for or against the constitutionality of the ABC statute. The rules are outlined below. View a sample brief. Good Luck!

Official Rules

1. All contestants must be affiliated with a participating L.A. County Mock Trial High School and enrolled at the team’s school. There may be a maximum of three entries per team.

2. All participants must register as a mock trial student online. There is no fee to participate in this pilot contest.

3. All participants must have a parent or legal guardian sign a permission slip authorizing the publication or reprinting of contest submissions for educational purposes. No financial compensation will be awarded.

4. All students must write their brief from the perspective of the defense OR the prosecution and students must work independently on their brief.

5. Submitted articles are limited to the pretrial materials and relevant case materials only. Any submission containing outside research will be disqualified.

6. Use of dictionaries and thesauruses will be permitted.

7. All contestants will have until November 3 to complete their briefs and deliver them to CRF. All entries must be completed and received by CRF via facsimile, e-mail, or hand-delivery by 5:00 p.m. on November 2.

8. Submissions must be a 12 point Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins, double-spaced, and no more than 1400 words on 8½ x 11 inch paper. The name of the school and the name of the student submitting the brief should be on the cover of the brief only. The name of the school and the names of the students should not appear elsewhere on the brief.

9. Attach a final page to each brief (not included in the 1400 word limit) certifying that:

1. The brief submitted is the work of the team member submitting the brief and was not done by another person.

2. The number of words in the brief. The count can be made by the word processing program used to prepare the brief.

3. He/she is familiar with the rules and have followed them.

10. The lines should be numbered. Below are instructions on line numbering for two common word processing programs.

WordPerfect:

1. Click on Format, Line, and Numbering.
2. Check the box to turn line numbering on.
3. Put the number 1 in boxes for Starting Line Number, First Printed Line Number, and Numbering Interval.
4. Make the position of the line number 0.6 from the left edge of paper.
5. Check the boxes for restart numbering on each page and count blank lines.
6. Click OK.

Microsoft Word:

1. Click on View and Print Layout.
2. Click on File and Page Setup.
3. Click the Layout tab.
4. Click on Page Numbers.
5. Click Add Line Numbers.
6. Fill in the boxes as follows:

Start at: 1
From text: 0.6
Count by: 1
Numbering: Restart each page

7. Click OK and OK.

11. Awards for the Brief Writing Contest are independent of the L.A. County Mock Trial Competition; an individual may win the contest regardless of the Mock Trial team’s final ranking.

Scoring for the Briefs

LEGAL ANALYSIS
60 points possible for the following:
Focus on relevant legal issues  (15 points)
Originality and creativity (15 points)
Effective use of supporting cases and authorities  (10 points)
Effectiveness in dealing with contrary arguments and authorities  (10 points)

WRITING QUALITY
40 points possible for the following:
Logical organization  (15 points)
Clarity in expressing arguments (15 points)
Effectiveness of writing style (10 points)
Use of proper grammar and citation form (10 points)
Overall appearance of the brief (10 points)

The judges’ personal views of the merits of the case should not affect their evaluations of the briefs. All judging decisions are final.

Constitutional Rights Foundation
601 South Kingsley Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90005
(213) 386-0459 fax
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