Reflective Essay: The Mock Trial

The mock trial was a very informative and educational experience for me. I thought that the experience benefited greatly from being in an actual courtroom with a real judge. It gave the trial an authentic feel. In terms of the verdict, I thought that the jury made the right decision. I agreed that Dr. Wilson was not compensated fairly according to her contract and had a right to take the matter to court. The main reason I believed that she was not compensated fairly was the issue of control over some of her expenses. Expenses such as electricity which, from my understanding, were allocated across all of the physicians. For this reason Dr. Wilson did not have control over how much electricity was used. The only thing I disagreed with in the

I thought that her opening and closing statements were not only concise and to the point but, also painted a clear story that was necessary to establishing a connection with the jury. The next student that stuck out to me was Dr. Onorio Molina. I thought that he explained his reasoning for his accounting decisions very well. When he pressed by the defendant during cross examination he stood his ground very well. I was impressed that he stood by his research and did not waver at all. Had he wavered, I believe that the defense would have jumped all over his testimony and the trial could have gone very differently. I also thought that Becca Henderson did a great job during direct examination and cross examination. She was confident in her questions and did not stop pressing the defendant’s witnesses. Becca also did a great job of only presenting information when it was relevant to a question. I thought that the defendant’s side at times would try and slide unnecessary information into their questions to try and mislead the jury. I also liked that Becca really attacked the second witness on the defendant’s side. To me this was a major turning point in the case. By pointing out all of the flaws in the second witness’s research, Becca cast a great deal of doubt on her report. To me the Plaintiffs demonstrated their case to the jury better than the Defendant’s and the jury chose the right