Opening statements examples mock trials

Movement about the courtroom can also add considerable force to your opening statement; it can be usedto make the transition from one topic to another or to emphasize a particular point. You should begin your opening statement standing directly in front of the fact-finder. Then, to signal transition, take a step or two to one side or the other whenever you change topics. By using your body in this manner you signal to the finder of fact that one subject has ended and another is about to begin.

The motion, in turn, will have the effect of reinitiating primacy. Most judges will allow you to move freely about the courtroom during opening statements. Even so, you might encounter a judge who prefers that you argue your case from the podium or behind counsel table. If you are unsure about which policy the judge follows, ask her before the trial begins.

Do Not Argue. As we noted above, argument is improper during opening statements. Defining argument. As with many other rules we have discussed, application of this rule will vary by competition and by presiding judge. To help you through the uncertainty involved in determining whether a statement is an argument, ask yourself the following questions:. Am I urging the fact-finder to draw inferences from the facts?

To illustrate to the application of our test, consider the following portions of opening statements that are based on a personal injury case:. Just before the accident the plaintiff was sitting in a bar. In less than an hour and a half he.

He bought a round for the house and then he left. He left in his car. The accident occurred within the next twenty minutes. The plaintiff was obviously drunk. No person could drink four shots of Everclear in that. Only an alcoholic or a liar would claim to have been. The first examplepasses our test since the bartender will testify to the facts contained un the first three sentences and the police will verify the remainder of the information.

The second example is more problematic. Thus, the second example fails our test and is therefore improper. Other considerations. In addition to the words you speak, a variety of other considerations may lead a judge to conclude that your opening statement has crossed the line into argument. A statement can be transformed into an argument simply by the way in which it is spoken, including the use of sarcasm, volume, or vocal caricature.

In addition, the use of rhetorical questions is inherently argumentative. Likewise, although an excellent persuasive device when used elsewhere in a trial, repetition an lead an opening statement into the forbidden territory of argument. Even the most innocent of facts can become provocative when repeated as many as three times, each with greater emphasis.

Do Not Comment on the Law. Closely related to the rule against argument is the general proscription against discussing the law at length during opening statements. Since it is virtually impossible for counsel to avoid some discussion of the law during any but the simplest opening statement, we recommend that you do so quickly and only to the extent necessary.

Remember when you do this, however, that it is never acceptable to advocate that the fact-finder follow a particular interpretation or construction of the law. Your most important task when giving an opening statement is to tell the fact-finder your theory and theme of the case. State your theory clearly. The most important rule concerning opening statements is to present a coherent theory of the case.

You will, of course, have developed such a theory in your pretrial preparation since no case can be won without one. The challenge now is to communicate it clearly, succinctly, and persuasively. Recall that a trial theory is the adaptation of a factual story to the legal issues of the case. Your theory must contain a simple, logical, provable account of facts which, when viewed in light of the controlling law, will lead to the conclusion that your client should win.

In short, you will want to use the opening statement to explain to the trier of fact why the verdict should be in your favor. A successful theory will be built around a persuasive story.

Ideally, such a story will be told about people who have reasons for the way they act; it will explain all of the known or undeniable facts; it will be told by credible witnesses; it will be supported by details; and it will accord with common sense. Thus, your opening statement should, at some point and in some manner, address all of these statements:. What happened? Describe the crucial events in your story. The crucial events are those that speak to the legal elements of your claim or defense.

For instance, if your client is charged with murder and is claiming self-defense, you will want to describe those events that led your client to believe that his life was threatened by the deceased. Why did it happen?

It is not sufficient to list the facts. A story is most persuasive when it explains why events occurred as they did, since a compelling reason for an action will tend to rule out alternatives. For example, you may state that the defendant in a collision case was driving slowly and carefully just before the accident. Even so, your explanation will be more persuasive if it is supported by the fact that the defendant was returning from an antique auction, carrying an expensive and fragile chandelier in the back seat of her car.

Which witnesses should be believed? For example:. Two experts will testify as to the cause of the fire. The plaintiff will call Fire Chief Barry. Roberts, who will testify that he investigated the fire as part of his normal professional. Chief Roberts concluded that the fire was accidental. He was not paid by either. He was simply doing his job. She does not work for the city or the state; she is a private investigator.

All of her income. She was hired by the defendant to reach an opinion about. How can we be sure? As should be apparent from the example above, the persuasiveness of an opening statement, indeed the persuasiveness of virtually any aspect of a trial, is often established through the use of details.

Broad assertions can stake out territory and raise issues, but the truth will be determined by the details. An essential element of an opening statement, then, is the judicious use of details in support of the accuracy, dependability, or believability of your facts. Does it all make sense? Finally, the theory you present in opening, or at any other point in the trial, much make sense when it is measured against the everyday experiences of the fact-finder.

The provisions of reasons, biases, or details, no matter how compelling they are to your way of thinking, will accomplish nothing if the judge or jury cannot place them into a context that they understand and accept.

Introduce your theme. Your trial theme, as distinct from your theory, should be expressed in a single sentence that captures the moral force of your case. A theme communicates to the finder of fact the reason that your client deserves to win. Nonetheless, using a theme in your opening statement presents some difficulty.

Unlike a trial theory, a theme is intended to reflect upon or interpret the evidence rather than simply to describe or outline it. Overuse or constant repetition of your theme may bring you perilously close to argument. Most judges, however, will allow the statement of a theme at both the beginning and end of an opening statement, especially when it is phrased in terms of fact as opposed to opinion or characterization. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a case about a driver who was too busy to be careful.

On the morning of the accident he woke up late. He had to be at an important meeting. Order and Contrast the Facts Persuasively. While argument is prohibited during opening statements, persuasion is not.

Indeed, persuasion is unavoidable. Few of the facts outlined in an opening statement will be neutral; most facts will be favorable to one side or the other. So long as counsel refrains from suggesting conclusions to be drawn from the facts, she is free to arrange them in an order that maximizes their favorable impact. The persuasive ordering of facts can be accomplished either through incremental development or through contrast.

Incremental development involves the successive ordering of a series of discrete facts, each building upon the last, until the desired conclusion becomes obvious. Although the facts will be related, they need not be presented in chronological order.

The following example demonstrates how the plaintiff might use incremental development in our fire truck case:. The defendant awoke at AM. He had an important meeting scheduled with a. The client had not yet decided whether.

The defendant showered, shaved, dressed, but he skipped breakfast. He went to his car,. All of this took approximately fifty minutes. He had thirty minutes left before the. Other facts, of course, could be added to show how seriously late the defendant was, and therefore how likely he was to drive carelessly or too fast. The point is that the individual events build upon each other to explain, without saying so, why the defendant would have been driving negligently. Contrast is the juxtaposition of contradictory facts, most often used in an opening statement to demonstrate the implausibility of some aspect of the opposing case.

The defendant in the fire engine case might use contrast this way:. The plaintiff in this case is seeking damages for pain and suffering and lost income. She claims a permanent disability. You will see medical bills offered into evidence.

December You will also see a receipt for the purchase of a new backpack and. She went to the doctor on. August 15, she bought her backpack on August 17, and she went camping at Eagle. River Falls on August She returned to town on September 3. Her next visit to.

A great deal of thought is required to plan an effective opening statement. In addition to following the rules outlined above, use these guidelines when determining the content and organization of your opening statement. Every good opening statement, no matter what the case, contains enough information to help you win the trial but not so much as to distract the fact-finder or risk exploitation by the other side.

So, how do you know what to include? Although the content of openings will vary depending on the type of case, the following considerations are helpful in most trials. Include only provable facts. Every fact that you include in your opening statement must be provable at trial. The law limits opening statements to a preview of the evidence that will be presented once the trial begins.

Evidence that no witness can verify or that is inadmissible under the rules of competition is not provable. Think of your opening as a promise to the fact-finder. By making a definitive statement about the future evidence, you have committed yourself to producing that evidence. If you do not deliver, at best you may seem to have overstated your case and at worst you may seem to have deliberately misled the fact-finder.

Even if the trier of fact does not realize that there has been a gap between your opening and your proof, you can be certain that opposing counsel will point it out during final argument.

Include the necessary facts. The most important part of any opening statement is its treatment of the operative facts. Although there is no recipe for determining which facts are necessary in a given case, you will no doubt want to include some or all of the following:.

The physical scene. The meaning and legal significance of events is often dependent upon their location. It is important, therefore, to use your opening statement to set the scene for the major events in your case. Action and key events. Most cases revolve around one or more actions or key events. In depicting actions and events, nouns and verbs can be much more helpful than adjectives and adverbs. This may seem strange since modifiers are commonly thought to add descriptive depth.

Consider, however, which of the following accounts is more evocative of the crime. First, a short paragraph that makes maximum use of adverbs and adjectives:. It was a heinous, horrible crime.

He left an ugly,. Without waiting, he grabbed. The second paragraph is more vivid because it describes the deeds as they occurred whereas the first paragraph actually short-circuits the action by substituting value-laden modifiers for an account of the events themselves. The message here is that you should use nouns and verbs in your opening statement and limit your use of modifiers, which are frequently judgments rather than descriptions and as such are argumentative.

Transactions and agreements. Civil cases are likely to involve written and oral communications far more than they do physical occurrences. In many ways these non-physical events may be more difficult to describe during an opening statement since there is little or no activity to depict. Nonetheless, when a case turns on the interpretation of a document or the meaning of a series of telephone calls, counsel must search for a way to bring the transaction to life.

Transactions and agreements are brought to life by interpreting, in simple terms, what happened or was agreed upon and then filling in the necessary details. There is no need, for example, to recount every telephone conversation that went into the negotiation of a purchase order. It will usually be sufficient to delineate the terms of the order itself, supported by an account of one or two crucial conversations.

Unlike final arguments, there is no rebuttal in opening statements. No matter what your opposing counsel says, you will not be able to respond directly until the end of the trial. This can be especially troublesome in cases where the defendant presents an affirmative defense.

Should the plaintiff ignore the affirmative defense, thereby foregoing the opportunity to reply to it at the outset of the trial? First, give primary attention to the strongest aspects of your own case. Do not get them started imagining the things that might be wrong with your case. Accentuate the positive.

To the extent possible, the defense raised by the other side should be treated as technicalities or annoyances. Since you will know with some certainty which defenses will be raised, there is no reason to address all of the holes that the defendant might try to punch in your case.

Concentrate on the most likely defenses. If you seem overly concerned or worried about a defense, it will suggest that there are indeed problems with your case. Finally, it must be noted that the Fifth Amendment prohibits prosecutors from so much as suggesting that the defendant will testify even if you know for a fact that he will be called. The Fifth Amendment does not, however, prevent the prosecution from reading from a confession or prior statement of the defendant so long as your case file does not contain a ruling that the statement is inadmissible.

Defense lawyers can plan and outline opening statements just like their opposing counsel. But, when the time comes to present their opening, good defense attorneys are flexible in determining the final content. If you are new to mock trial, stick to your prepared outline. For the more confident and experienced students, there are a few techniques you should use when responding.

First, state your denial right up front. Its entire thrust is to tell a story that accuses the defendant of negligence, breach of contract, criminal acts, or some other negative conduct. Anything short of a denial is likely to be regarded as evasion, equivocation, or worse, an admission of fault.

Simply telling your own independent story is not sufficient since that will not allow you to explain why the facts in support of your version are superior. As all trial lawyers learn, the absence of evidence can be as telling as the evidence itself. Begin with your theme and theory. Recalling the principle of primacy, which posits that what is heard first will be best remembered, you should begin your opening statement by getting right to the point: state your theme; explain the most important point of your theory; lay the groundwork for a crucial direct or cross examination; foreshadow your closing argument.

In the fire truck case, the plaintiff might want to open something like this:. This is a case about a defendant who was too busy to be careful. Because he failed. The fire truck was flashing its lights and sounding its siren. All of the other drivers noticed. Except the defendant. He had his mind on an important. Now the plaintiff will never take.

The opening on the preceding page is direct and to the point. The three central points that the plaintiff will make are all mentioned: 1 The fire truck was clearly visible, 2 all of the other traffic stopped, and 3 the defendant was preoccupied and caused the accident.

In considering what to include in your opening paragraph, choose the information that you hope will remain in the mind of the fact-finder when the trial is over. Ask yourself: What facts most support a verdict in my favor? What issues will be most hotly contested? Which witness will be most relied upon? Introduce yourself and your client. While there is a natural inclination to begin your opening statement by introducing yourself, your co-counsel, and your client, it really is not important enough to warrant the use of your opening moment.

If you represent a specific person, now is the time to introduce him to the fact-finder as well. This is your chance to humanize your client, to give the fact-finder a chance to come to like him. Stand next to him, place your hand on his shoulder and introduce him like you would your own grandfather. Explain his many fine qualities. Remember that likable people are more apt to be perceived as credible. If you represent the prosecution in a criminal case, it is a good idea to introduce the victim of the crime after the traditional introduction.

You might continue as follows:. Danielle Weeks grew up here in Tucson with her mother father,. Danielle was heavily involved in acting, dance, and musical theatre.

Her teachers considered her to be. Introducing the victim at the outset of your case humanizes her so that the judge and jury will remember who the victim was and the gravity of the crime committed.

Avoid the witness-by-witness approach. Recall that the very purpose of the opening statement, indeed its underlying justification, is to overcome the disjointed fashion in which the witnesses will produce evidence at trial. A witness-by-witness rendition of the facts is unlikely to produce a coherent story when the witnesses take the stand and testify for themselves. This method of organization becomes no more helpful simply because a lawyer has substituted a summary of the testimony for the actual direct and cross examinations.

Ladies and gentlemen, you will hear a number of witnesses testify in this case. Let me. Karen Trumbull will testify that on the morning of the accident she was driving south on. As she approached the intersection of Craycroft and Ata Vista, she saw a. My client was charged for murder and being in the united states illegally. But he and his wife are currently waiting for citizenship paperwork to become a unites states citizen.

He is getting accused of distrabuting drugs to high school students and there was a party being thrown on april My client was in mexico durring a family reunion.

Thank you. I am not sure how the murder allegation ties in, but let me try to deal with the drug allegation. I am not sure how you get around the fingerprints on the drugs.

Maybe the defendant touched the bags when they were empty because he uses such bags in his restaurant, and then later someone else put the bags to use in the business of drugs. I am the defense attorney and my client is charged with human trafficking. I just want to know what kind of questions I can ask the star witness. This is my first year participating in a Mock Trial course, and I am the defense attorney for our first case of the year.

Most of the students in my class have either taken an Intro to Law course, or have taken the class before. I just want to thank you for providing this information, as I have little knowledge on opening and closing statements.

The odds might be stacked against us, but I hope we can pull it out. Thanks, Milo, 8th grade. Right on. Thanks, Milo. It looks like you are doing a good job researching trials and I wish you the best. Regards, Steve Graham Esq.

This This really helps. I am the defendant on the mock trial trial we are scheduled to have on November 5. This puts everything into perspective. Thank you so much for this!! Highlight the strengths of your case. Was the driver unsteady? Did he have a strong odor of alcohol?

Was he swerving around when he was driving? Try to cover the highlights. I guess that would be my advice. It was an acquaintance you were with that cannot be found. I have visited your website and it helps but I have to write a defense statement where I am defending Galileo please respond to my email and help.

Trying to get around that whole Respondeat Superior thing. I have an opening statement written, would you mind taking a look and helping me out?? This is my first year particpating in mock trial and I was ask to perform the opennig for the defence. I have little exp if not any at all and I would greatly appreaciate your advice and suggestions on my opening drafts.

This has been very helpful in my approach to writing my opening speech. I highlighted certain points that i never would have sought and it really had my speech flowing from one point to the next. I am very appreciative of this. Can you please write some more examples of thinking outside of the box, coming up with creative arguments in response to what the prosecution has to offer, warping their statements against them.

I just require further inspiration at the moment. Thank you for your time. Hello, thank you so much for posing this! I recently joined the mock trial team and there are a few questions that I would like to ask. It would be greatly appreciated if you have the time! Your suggetions has been a great tool for my opening statement, but I am wondering if I can get feedback on some questions that I have, if your time is sufficient.

In my class we are using the book Lord of the Flies for our mock trial, im defending Jack and roger, Jack i can handle but Roger is clearly guilty. Going into this trial the jury already knows rogers intent, should i argue that he was mentally ill? Is it common for an instructor to give the group only one week to get a mock trial together? We were given the story to read-week one-before the next class. Then we were given the reason as to why we had the story-the mock trial-the week two.

Now, as a group we have to prepare a mock trial to be presented the week three. What class is this, you ask? SPK Oral Communication!!!!! Yikes, that does seem like a short time period!

Hopefully you have a lot of good teammates that can each pull their weight. I am the defense attorney. He was being deceived by 2 adult white men. One night, they convinced him to break into a mercantile and let them in. The white men wear stockings over their heads to make them look black. As the two older men are robbing the place, the store owner and his wife wake up and go downstairs into the shop to see whats going on.

The 2 older men kill the owner and then knock out his wife. When they leave, TJ threatens to rat them out. They beat TJ up and break a few of his ribs. TJ runs away and is able to hitch a ride back to his house. Later that night, the 2 white men gather up a mob and try to lynch TJ. They are unsuccessful because the sheriff takes him away. TJ is being convicted of murder, assault, and robbery. What is the best way to defend him, and what questions should I ask him during the trial?

Hi Irene. If that is what your packet says, then I would go with that. Every school is different, and it is best to tailor your statement to comply with the expectations of your teacher or the materials that she has given you.

I can say, however, that as a lawyer who has done trials for 20 years, I do address the evidence that I think the other side might present.

One word of caution is that if you are a prosecutor, you need to be careful not to say anything that could be construed as placing a burden of proof on the defense. The burden of proof is always on the prosecuting attorney.

Thanks for visiting my blog! I am on the defense team for this trial, so if anyone has any evidence to prove that he is innocent it would be greatly appreciated.

I also need help in my opening statement regarding this case, what do I write to defend someone up for Murder and High Treason? Thanks guys for visiting my blog. If they had failed in the revolution they would be prosecuted? Maybe it is justified by the need to depose a king that needs to be removed? Anyone else have any other ideas? I am a university student preparing my opening statement.

Hi Adam. The best way is to post your questions here. I usually check the blog once a day but sometimes I get into an actual trial and get busy and then come back to the site on the weekends.

Hello aoa. I am going for mock trial after 4 hours i am against the judgement of marbury vs madison case please any one can help me and give me the negative points of that judgement. Please fast. Gosh, I am thinking that your project is more of a mock appellate argument case rather than a mock trial. This is so helpful! That would be a great help! In my class we have a mock trial where I am the defence counsel and I have to deliver the opening statement, your site helped to give me some pointers but if you have time please email me.

I am representing myself in court on Tuesday. I know this is for mock trials but I really need a solid opening statement and closing statement. Is there a spot on here of good examples? Hi Whitney. Could u please tell me some more starting for opening statements ie you heard her explain what she hopes will be proven or whatever.

Thank you very much for this clear example. I will be sure to explain to my mock trial teammates that they must touch upon the points addressed in the opening statement during their questioning.

I really appreciate the time you took to create this. Do you have an article about closing statements for the defence? Are there any major differences between an opening and closing statement? Hi Reagan. So the opening is not the opportunity for you to argue your case. Rather it is the time to tell the jury what evidence you believe will be presented so they know what to look for later on throughout the trial.

A closing argument is an opportunity for you to argue your case, and to explain why they should side with you and your client. We are doing a mock trail for Abigial Williams — The Crucible- and im on the defense side i was wondering if you could help with a starting sentence. It is always nice to have people you can rely on helping you with something you need help on.

For example, you have helped me train my self to prepare for a mock trial I have coming up soon. Im in fifth grade and doing my first mock trial. Im the defense attorney for the soldiers of the Boston massacre. So,done suggested that i object to the jurisdiction of the court because the constitution and legal system were not in place at the time of the event.

When and how do I do that? Also, the main concepts i plan to include in my opening are that there were not street lights in colonial Massacheutes, there was a mob approx fifty people thus witnesses may not have accurately seen what transpired. Witnesses cannot absolutely assert he gave the order. The soldiers were provoked and the colonists threatened them. Colonists were slurring insults red coats, lobsters, etc and throwing ice, snowballs containing rocks, snowballs containing shells.

My lens is that the colonists started the incident and the soldiers defended themselves. Is there anything else i should include? Since i am John Adams should i say so,etching about not liking my clients but believing everyone has a right to a fair trial. You could object to jurisdiction, but even in colonial days the courts were very similar. I guess I would ask your teacher. Some mock trial competitions allow for pretrial motions but others do not.

Hi, I am from the University of the south Pacific Emalus campus, Vanuatu and we will be having our trial assessment next week. I m acted as a defense counsel on a case of intentional assault. Good points.

Thanks so much for all this information! This gives me what I needed for my defense team. Again, thank you so very much! I am in the state of nc.. I am going to trial on a 10year old dui case.. So far I have a bit of traps and play on words in my bag but its a bit challenging, I do love a good challenge though-. Thanks for visiting our site.

I have not seen that play, but I did look it up in Wikipedia. I would keep in mind that a trial is not about guilty versus innocent, it is guilty versus not guilty. A not guilty verdict just means just that there is a doubt, and there are a lot of doubts here. The police believed that I requested her to cancel the case.

But I did not plead guilty I have a pretrial and final hearing in a few months. I am currently the lead defense lawyer of a mock trial case. It regards a single father who has a daughter who has a friend. The father had an accident that led to his staying in a hospital then rehabilitation center for 5 weeks.

I need ideas on how to deliver my opening statement…Could you send me some tips? Thank you in advance! Seems like requiring facts in a certain number is a little arbitrary. A better way to think of it is maybe covering 10 strong points of your case in your opening. Comments RSS. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account.

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Zoom Profile ………. Home About. Mock trial blog Mock trial info for high school kids. Feeds: Posts Comments.

Mock Trial Closing Arguments for Prosecution ».