Court is adjourned as the mock trial teams across the county exit the doors of the Forsyth County Courthouse with pride. The blinding sunset shines upon the mock trial teams as they walk for lunch and wait patiently for their results. Later on, the South Forsyth Mock Trial team would receive victorious news. On Saturday, Feb. 2, 2018, South Forsyth won the 3rd place in the district Georgia Mock Trial Competition for the first time in 6 years.

The court case that was created for the annual competition was titled as Hutchinson vs. Shutze and was a fictional case surrounding a dispute over 40 million dollars in lottery winnings. The mock trial case for this year was a civil case over a dispute, unlike recent previous years, which were mostly murder and criminal cases. Each school in the district is given the court case files with the testimonies of each fictional witness as well as manuscripts of evidence. Then, the plaintiff and defense teams from each school prepare their cases for about 7 months as the lawyers practice their arguments and the witnesses play out their characters. Finally, the day of the competition arrives as each school and their teams arrive at the Forsyth County Courthouse on Friday. For the first round, plaintiff and defense teams from different schools are assigned a courtroom to have a trial. The competition continues on to the next day for the second round of trials. Afterwards, all schools are judged by a team of real lawyers and judges who grade them on their performance and arguments.

“The competition was nerve-wracking,” freshman Kailyn Serbinski said. “I was so nervous at first, but my teammates helped me and did everything they could to help me prepare and we all supported each other throughout all of it.”

The South Forsyth Mock Trial Team worked diligently to prepare their case for the district competition. Although the team veterans may have lost some members last year, they still practiced every meeting and built up a strong team for the competition. They met up every Monday and Thursday to continually built each other up, fixing any holes in their arguments and testimonies, and having many practice trials to prepare for the real district trials. For each round, lawyers and witnesses from South Forsyth passed beyond expectations and were given awards for Outstanding Attorney or Witness, marking them as the best of the best in their trial.

“The team’s progress is absolutely astounding,” junior Rachita Iyer states. “However, I wouldn’t say that I’m surprised, given the incredible amount of talent our team has.”

There were 8 schools who participated in this competition and only 4 schools who were able to pass to the district competition, including South Forsyth High. These schools would meet again in the Forsyth County Courthouse to face off in another round of trials to decide which school would proceed to compete in state.

No matter the result of the district competition, the South Forsyth Mock Trial Team will always be proud of what they accomplished this year; since through much time and effort they have made it into district for the first time in 6 years.