Students from schools and colleges across the Midlands will be taking on the law with the real possibility of ending up at the famous Old Bailey courtroom in London.
Some of the 15 to 18-year-olds are even likely to find themselves in the dock.
But parents and teaching staff need not fear, as the students representing 16 local schools and colleges will only be participating in the Birmingham regional heat of the Bar National Mock Trial Competition.
They will experience the sharp end of the legal profession when they compete at the Queen Elizabeth II Crown Court in Birmingham city centre on Saturday.
Up to 15 students from each school will compete in teams, taking on the roles of jurors, court staff and barristers to tackle complex court cases, all in the setting of a real working courtroom.
And they will be addressing real issues of dangerous driving and breach of the peace, testing their skills of argument and reasoning and their understanding of the law, as they compete to present the most powerful case in both prosecution and defence.
The competition, now in its 18th year, is organised by the Citizenship Foundation. Each of the teams taking part has been preparing over the past few months with the assistance of dedicated volunteer barristers who provide advice to the students on points of law and court procedure, as well as providing an invaluable real-life perspective of how trials work.
The Birmingham heat will be judged by practising circuit judges, recorders and senior barristers, with the winning team going on to compete in the final against 15 other schools selected from heats across the UK.
The final will take place in March next year in the Old Bailey.
Tony Breslin, chief executive of the Citizenship Foundation charity, said: “For 18 years the Bar National Mock Trial Competition has set a benchmark in law-related education.
“It is a terrific example of the very best in Citizenship education practice and was recognised as such in the recent Lord Neuberger Report, which has called for the extension of just this sort of activity to a greater range of young people.”
