In each round, there are two types of judges: the presiding judge and the scoring judge. Presiding Judge: You act like a real trial judge. Your responsibilities include keeping the trial running smoothly, ruling on objections, and maintaining courtroom decorum. Scoring Judge: Your role is to carefully evaluate the performance of the attorneys and witnesses. You’ll use a ballot to assign scores for the different aspects of the trial (i.e. opening statements, examinations, closing arguments) Sometimes presiding judges will also act as a scoring Judge. You will be able to select your judging preferences upon registering for HIT XV.

The competitive field at HIT is comprised of pre-law students from top universities across North America. The competitions you judge will be strong orators, presenters, and actors. Upon registering to judge HIT, we make note of any conflicts of interest that may arise as a result of any prior involvement with collegiate mock trial organizations. Therefore, all competitors will be unknown to you.

To judge a round of mock trial, you must fall into at least one of the following categories: Former AMTA Competitor Current Law Student Former Law Student Current Legal Professional (Lawyer, Judge, Litigator, etc.) Former Legal Professional There is no requirement to be familiar with mock trial or the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) to judge at HIT. All judges will receive a brief a training session on the day-of covering how rounds of mock trial work and what to look for when scoring rounds.

Judging at HIT is a flexible time commitment—you can judge anywhere from 1 to 4 rounds across the tournament weekend. Times vary based on the tournament day, but exact times can be found on our judge registration form. Rounds will never last more than three hours, and most end around 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Unless otherwise noted in your invitation, each program invited my register one team. By request, an additional team may be added to a waitlist. To add a team to the waitlist, please indicate such in your RSVP. The waitlist for second teams will be on a first-come, first-served basis so the quicker you respond the more likely you are to be able to bring a second team.

A tournament fee of $375 can be paid through venmo or check. Check Please make the check payable to “Georgetown University Mock Trial” and mail to: Nate Schindler 1665 35th St. NW Washington, DC 20007 *If you send a check, please email us when you have sent it so we can notify you when we receive your payment. Venmo For Venmo payments, please send your registration to our treasurer @selim_kim1 In your memo, please write “[School Name] - HIT Payment” (If you are sending more than one team, please make sure to list if your payment is for one or both teams as well). PayPal For PayPal Payments, we have emailed you a separate invoice through PayPal. Please let us know if you haven’t received it.

Is that even a question? HIT XV is set to be our best tournament yet: a weekend built by competitors, for competitors. We are hosting 26 of the most competitive programs on the circuit for our first international tournament!

HIT follows a 2-2 tournament schedule—two rounds each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Openings will be hosted virtually the thursday before tournament weekend. Closings will start ASAP post round 4.