Court is now in session.

Well, the Zoom call with mock trial students is.

Beaver County's most (in)experienced young lawyers have begun preparing for their first Mock Trial competition January 2. This trial usually would be held at the University of Pittsburgh, but that proved unfeasible this year due to COVID.

The trial concerns the death of George Romero, and whether he was killed by his drug addiction or allegedly harmful energy drinks. Truly, the trial of the century.

The Bobcat team does not yet know the school prosecuting the energy drink company, but Beaver Area's budding lawyers will be defending the energy drink company. They must have deeper pockets!

In senior Ryan Appel's words, however, "The peyote in the [energy] drink is heart healthy," she joked.

Junior Jacob Dingo is highly optimistic about the competition due to the team’s performance last season.

"I think we’re going to do really well because we almost made [Mock Trial] states last year," Dingo stated.

As for the team's chances of getting to states this year, senior Grace Druschel isn’t so sure.

"We have a pretty good team this year, and I think we could make it to states, but with virtual trials nobody knows," Druschel said about competitions to be held over Zoom rather than in real courtrooms.

Mock Trial competitions play out much like real court proceedings with students taking on the roles of attorneys and witnesses in a fictitious court case meant to simulate plausible legal challenges. Actual practicing attorneys judge the students’ performance and declare winners.

The date for state competitions has not yet been announced.