How should I move around the courtroom?
Movement is crucial to the entire idea of Mock Trial. Movement, to a certain extent, allows you to set dominance and presence in the courtroom. As mentioned before, movement should only be done to a certain extent as it can also be distracting. This is where the saying, “Everything with a Purpose,” will play out. Every time you write something, say something or move, it should be done with a purpose.
Movement during an Opening Statement or Closing Argument
If your competition has jurors, you should ALWAYS face them even if the judge is scoring. If your competition has the judge as a juror or a scoring judge, you should then face the scoring judge. You shouldn’t be too close or too far from a jury.
As far as movement goes, you should move in a triangle. Your opening or closing will have three points, and you should move when transitioning between your points.
Movement during a Direct Examination
During a Direct Examination, you will face your witness straightforward, and you should NEVER block the view of the jurors. Regarding movement, you do not want to move as the witness is the focus at that moment. You should make subtle movements such as a step forward during important points or pivotal questions to get the attention of the jurors. These points or questions should help your case out in a major way as doing this often will be distracting.
Movement during a Cross Examination
During a Cross Examination, you will set the dominance and become the focus of the room. Your movement will play a major role in this as the witness will try to gain the attention of the room, directing it away from you. You also want to make the job of the witness as difficult as possible. You can do this by standing in the middle of the well, so the witness has to turn his head every time you ask a question or answers a question. You want to step forward during important points or pivotal questions to get the attention of the jurors. These points or questions should help your case out in a major way as doing this often will be distracting.
Delivery is the Key
Although movement is important, the delivery of the case-in-chief is the most important. If the delivery of the information isn’t perfect, the jurors won’t listen to you, and everything you did from reading the case, developing a case theory, writing a cross, direct, opening, and closing will become irrelevant.
Step One, The Voice
Your voice is the most important tool in Mock Trial.
The first thing you should always do is project your voice and be LOUD. This will become evident as you step into a formal courtroom. The jurors, judge, opposing team, and the witness must be able to hear you for you to get your point across.
The second thing you should do is speak at a slower and steady pace. Often, you may think you might be speaking at a slow and steady pace, but in actuality, you are speaking very fast. As you get nervous speaking, you also tend to speak fast. This is important as controlling your pace will allow the jury to gather and process the information.
The third thing you should do is try speaking with different tones. Changing your tone will retain the attention of the jurors. It can also have an impact on your delivery. For example, being nice and having a “nice” tone to a defensive witness can benefit you as it shows the witness is defensive while you were nice to them.
Step Two, The Hands
Have you ever notice when someone gives a speech, and they move their hands? They’re using hand movement as a way to deliver their information and getting your attention. You can use hand movements in Mock Trial to deliver information and retain the jurors’ attention.
You should only use hand movements to a certain extent without being too distracting. It’s best to keep your hands loosely near you chest so when you make a hand movement in your delivery; it’s not too distracting. For example, you shouldn’t keep your hands at the sides of your waist since you’ll be making large hand movements and it will become distracting.