California High School Students Compete to Become 2025 State Mock Trial Championship Team

Thousands of students all over the state have donned their best suits and public speaking skills as they acted out various roles in the courtroom. Now it’s time to see who takes top honors. 

After weeks of competition, students from 32 California counties gear up for this year's finals of the California Mock Trial Competition, which takes place in Los Angeles from March 14-16. 

Participants will argue the fictitious kidnapping case People v. Gold. The defendant Logan Gold has been charged with the kidnapping of Taylor Alexander, who is a rival candidate to Gold’s spouse Harper Dorais in a city council race in the rural mountain town of Emerald Bend, California. Gold is the assistant campaign manager to their spouse and is also the sole hotel owner in town. The prosecution argues that Gold had political and financial motives for abducting Alexander. The defense argues that Gold was without a cell phone and GPS tracking the day Alexander was abducted, which was the day of the city council candidate debate. The pretrial issue centers on a defense motion to exclude a potentially incriminating statement made by Gold while in police custody. 

Teach Democracy (formerly known as the Constitutional Rights Foundation) created the California Mock Trial Program in 1980. The statewide program stemmed from a successful model in Los Angeles County and helps students acquire a working knowledge of the judicial system, develop analytical abilities and communication skills, and gain an understanding of their obligations and responsibilities as participating members of our society. 

In addition to the mock trials themselves, counties award individual honors to students in courtroom artist and journalist contests. 

The winner of the statewide finals will advance to the National High School Mock Trial Championship in Phoenix, Arizona from May 7-10. 

Check out some highlights from different county competitions in our interactive map below (If you are unable to view the map below, click here). If you wish for your county to be included, contact courtnews@jud.ca.gov with information, photos, and links.

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California high schools have placed in first or second place four times in the National Mock Trial Competition since 1984.

Year	School	County	Place
1989	John Marshall High School	Los Angeles	2nd
1994	Arlington High School	Riverside	1st
2005	Tamalpais High School	Marin	1st
2013	La Reina High School	Ventura	2nd