Tuesday, 28 April 2026By 4L Laura Chan
By winning two preliminary rounds, the STC Mock Trial Team has advanced to the Final Round – only eight schools in Hong Kong have done so. Our team has selected our contestant who will stand out and fight for the glory of Shung Tak. To advance in the competition, practice within the team is not enough. That is why we are thrilled to have a friendly match with PLK Choi Kai Yau School.
For this round, we are the defenders of our defendant. Our lawyers have prepared sharp questions to prevent the prosecution’s case from being upheld. We address the reasonable doubts about the prosecution’s bias against the defendant and whether the defendant was aware of the facts of the case. Acting as the defendant, who is one of the witnesses on our side, I lay all my trust in our lawyers. To help them put up a strong defence, we, the witnesses, also tried our best to negotiate with the opposing lawyers – avoiding stepping into the traps their questions set, refusing to limit ourselves to yes-or-no answers, and speaking more truthfully from ‘our’ perspective. After all, the benefit of the doubt goes to the defendant. With our team’s efforts, objections from our witnesses and lawyers demonstrated that the opposing party’s witnesses were not credible, and we successfully won the argument.
Despite the happiness of winning, the most precious thing is to learn from practical experience. After this friendly match, not only do our lawyers feel less anxious about the real competition, but we also state clearly our team line. The main point is not whether the defendant acted strangely at the time of the incident or whether prejudice exists against the opponent’s witness. It is whether the defendant knows the truth – the truth that he was carrying drugs. As long as we can prove that wrong, the motion must not stand. By stating this clearly, our lawyers’ practice can be more precise, and our stand will be more solid.
The turning point in the case lies in those seemingly insignificant details; by reading between the lines, observing with meticulous attention, and putting oneself in the defendant’s shoes, one can secure an unshakeable victory in this defence. Hopefully, before the real battlefield, we can all get well prepared and support our counsel appearing in court.