Battle of the Carolinas Held Feb. 6-7

The Battle of the Carolinas Middle School Mock Trial Competition was held Feb. 6-7 at the Chatham County Justice Center in Pittsboro. The top four teams from North and South Carolina faced off to determine who has the best middle school mock trial team in the Carolinas.

The competition represented the final phase of the North Carolina Bar Association’s annual Justice Iredell Middle School Mock Trial Competition. The NCBA, through its Law-Related Education Department, previously held competition at the regional and state championship levels.

The winner of this year’s Battle of the Carolinas was Forestbrook Middle School of Myrtle Beach, S.C. Moultrie Middle School of Mount Pleasant, S.C., was named the first runner-up, Ocean Bay Middle School, also of Myrtle Beach, S.C., placed third, and Buist Academy of Charleston, S.C. placed fourth. For more on South Carolina’s delegation, please see the South Carolina Bar Association’s press release.

The North Carolina delegation was composed of The Academy at Lincoln from Greensboro, under the leadership of teacher Damian Eastwell; state champion Cane Creek Middle School of Fletcher, under the leadership of teacher Charles Palmer; Lakewood Montessori of Durham, under the direction of teacher Katie Dulaney; and Wayne School of Engineering of Goldsboro, under the direction of teacher Jesse Pittard.

Through participation in the mock trial program, students increase basic skills such as listening, speaking, writing, reading and problem analysis. Each participating school enters a team sponsored by a teacher volunteer that is ideally composed of between 6 and 16 students.

Teams try the same fictional case against other teams. The top team will be declared the Champion of the Battle of the Carolinas 2015.

This program is supported by the NCBA Law-Related Education Advisory Committee, the NCBA Foundation, the NCBA’s Litigation and Criminal Justice sections, the South Carolina Bar Law- Related Education Division and the South Carolina Bar Foundation.