Schedule of Events(Dates subject to change)
Requests for fact pattern clarification due: December 22, 2008
Answers to requests for fact pattern clarification by: January 23, 2009
Final list of students on team(s) due: January 26, 2009
Students must be members of AAJ by: January 26, 2009
2009 Regional Competition: February 27 - March 1, 2009
2009 National Finals: April 2 - 5, 2009, West Palm Beach, FL
2009 STAC Fact Pattern
Download the 2009 fact pattern »
How to Register for the 2009 STAC Competition
1) Register your school's team by November 17, 2008. Download and complete the School Entry Form
. Fax or mail the form by November 17, 2008 with the appropriate payment of $300 per team. Your team will not be officially registered if the form is received without payment of $300 per team.
2) Register your team members by January 26, 2009. Download and complete the Team Entry Form
. Each student listed on the form MUST be an AAJ law student member in good standing in order to compete. To become an AAJ law student member, join now, or send $15 membership payment for each joining student member with your faxed or mailed form.
Please send all forms to:
Nathalie Etori
AAJ - Student Trial Advocacy Competition
777 6th Street, NW
Suite 200
Washington, DC 20001
Fax: 202.298.6351
The winning team and their coach will receive free airfare, hotel accommodations, and registration to the 2009 AAJ Annual Convention in San Diego, CA, July 11-15.
Rules of the AAJ Student Trial Advocacy Competition
The competition is open to law schools nationwide. Each law school may enter up to two teams, each team consisting of four law students. PLEASE NOTE that your second team will not be officially registered until one team from each law school has entered the mock trial competition. Then the second team will be registered on a first-come, first-served basis, until all the team slots are filled. Teams remaining after the competition is full will be put on a waiting list. If spots open up due to teams dropping out of the competition, those spots will be offered to the waitlisted teams on a first-come, first-served basis. If you register two teams and only one team is able to participate, you will receive a refund for that team.
Each school may use its own method to select its trial team. However, for a student to be eligible, he or she must be enrolled for a J.D. degree and be a student member of AAJ. Students who graduate in December 2008 are eligible to participate only if the competition counts toward their credits for graduation and they will not be admitted to practice prior to March, 2009.
Sixteen (16) teams are assigned to fourteen (14) regions. Only the top team from each region will advance to the National Finals in West Palm Beach, FL.
AAJ's mock trial cases are always civil cases and tend to deal with products liability, personal injury, or medical malpractice/negligence issues. Teams will be judged on their skills in case preparation, opening statements, use of facts, the examination of lay and expert witnesses, and closing arguments. There will be no written exercise.
