Rules, timeline and locations

The Magistrates’ Court Mock Trial Competition (ages 12-14)

Applying for the Magistrates’ Court Mock Trial Competition? Please see the key dates, locations and rules below.

Key dates

2025

Before applications open: Download our free Mock Trial classroom pack to start preparation.
Wednesday 24th September: Applications open, with school guides and student guides made available to all schools.
Wednesday 22nd October: Applications close. Applications close (may remain open in undersubscribed areas). Case released from this week to those who have paid their entry fees.
Tuesday 18th November: Last payment deadline – all payments not yet made must be paid by this date. Invoices will be due within 30 days of the invoice date or by the final payment deadline, whichever comes first. Schools that have not paid by this date may not be able to participate.
Monday 8th December: Deadline for refunded withdrawals (minus a £40 administration fee).

2026

March: Local Heats take place.
End of March/early April: Second and final case made available to schools progressing to Regional Finals.
May-June: Regional Finals.

Locations

These locations are provisional and are subject to change depending on school uptake, court availability and the involvement of our local organisers.

Basildon, Birmingham, Bradford, Burnley, Carlisle, Cornwall, Coventry and Warwickshire, Derbyshire, Durham, East London, Hereford, Hertfordshire, High Wycombe, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Norfolk, Northern Ireland, North Hampshire, North London, North West London, Nottinghamshire, Oxford, Reading, Southampton, South East London, South West London, South Wales, Stafford, Surrey, Teesside, West London, Wiltshire, Wirral, Wolverhampton, and Worcester.

Please select your preferred top three locations in your application form, and we will endeavour to ensure you are placed in your most convenient heat.

Rules

1. Entering the Magistrates’ Court Mock Trial Competition

To enter the Magistrates’ Court Mock Trial Competition, you must register for a Young Citizens account, complete an online application form, and pay the full entry fee (see point 3).
By entering the competition, the ‘lead teacher’ assumes responsibility for preparing the team, disseminating the relevant resources needed to prepare, ensuring that their team attends the heat on the relevant day of the competition on time, and ensures the team is supervised during the day. This responsibility may be shared with an additional ‘support teacher’ in your school.
The relevant teachers must remain communicative and inform Young Citizens in writing if circumstances in their school have changed that impacts their team’s participation in the competition.

2. Entry requirements: your team

The competition is open to students aged 12 to 14 from non-fee paying schools and education providers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (year 8 – 9 in England and Wales, and year 9 – 10 in Northern Ireland).
Teams are between 10 – 15 students. Your team needs to be prepared to compete on a Saturday or in some locations a Friday during heat weekends. Some online heats may take place on weekdays.

3. Entry fee

The entry fee of £230 entitles you to competition preparation material, cases, online video resources, and allocation to a local heat. Where possible, this may include support from a Local Organiser and/or a liaison magistrate who are magistrate volunteers based near your school.
The Magistrates’ Court Mock Trial PLUS Membership of £310 includes unlimited access to more than twenty-five lessons which tackle a number of SMSC, Citizenship and PSHE themes using the topic of the law for 12 months, as well as the benefits listed above.
The entry fee must be received within 30 days of your invoice or final date of payment for your school to be allocated a place in the competition and receive the case materials.
Please note, invoices will be due (according to the organisation-wide agreed payment terms) within 30 days of the invoice date OR by the final payment deadline above, depending on which comes first.
Schools who have not paid by the last payment date may not be able to participate.

4. Allocation

Allocations will not be processed until application form and entry fee have been received.
In each year of the competition, more applications are received than places are available. Priority will be given to applications in the following order:

1. new schools which have applied before the deadline, or schools which we consider will help to meet our goals of increasing social mobility and social inclusion through the programme;
2. reserve schools which were not placed in the previous year and have applied before the deadline;
3. schools that participated in the competition in the previous year and have applied before the deadline;
4. schools that have applied after the deadline; and
5. schools that have failed to attend heats with little or no notice.

5. Waiting list

We aim to provide all teams with a place in the competition but if a heat is oversubscribed, we may allocate you a reserve place on the waiting list.
Reserve teams should prepare for the competition, however will only be allocated a place at the heat if another school withdraws. You will be notified via email if your reserve team is later allocated a place in the competition.
All reserve schools will be given the option to participate in an online heat.

6. Withdrawals

You must actively inform, via email, a member of the Young Citizens team of your intention to withdraw.
The deadline for refunded withdrawals is Monday 8th December 2025. Withdrawals on or before this date will receive a full refund minus a £40 administration fee. Withdrawals after this date will not be refunded.
Withdrawals after the deadline cause considerable logistical problems for us and may affect our ability to place you in the competition in future years.

7. Venues

We are committed to delivering a mock trial experience for everyone who is allocated a place next year in some form at the locations listed above. Usually, we host our mock trials in court buildings. We will be using the following approach when deciding venues for next year:

Courts – We are currently in the process of checking in with courts nationally to see if they are able to accommodate us for next cycle. If they confirm that we are able to use the court building, this will be the venue we use.
Alternative Venues – If courts are unable to host us, we will try and secure alternative venues in the local area such as halls, universities etc.
Online Competition – If either of the above options are not possible, we will host the competition online using a platform such as Zoom. Please note – this may mean that heats may be held slightly differently in different locations.

8. Preparation: resources

Guides for each student role, and a Schools’ Guide to prepare for trial will have been released on application. These resources are amended on an annual basis so please make sure to read them even if your school has participated before.
Once you have been successful with your application and been allocated a place at a local heat, you will receive one specially written criminal case at local heat stage and a second case should you progress to a regional final. You must prepare both defence and prosecution for both cases.

9. Preparation: roles in your team

Each team should consist of four lawyers, four witnesses, one usher, one legal advisor and three magistrates. Each student role is provided with specific guidelines on how to prepare for their role within the guide.
If you are unable to make up a team of 15, you can compete with as few as 8 students if you double up on certain roles. Please see FAQs as to how this works.

10. Preparation: additional support

We offer video resources to help assist your team during preparation and demonstrate key advocacy skills.
Local heats may be coordinated by a local organiser who oversees the preparation and running of the heat in their local areas. These are voluntary roles taken on by local magistrates or legal advisors in the area. Where possible, they will try to offer some support in the form of either a court visit or a liaison magistrate.
Volunteers will not go through the case itself or help with building arguments. Please note that provision of additional support in terms of a court visit or liaison magistrate is not guaranteed, is subject to availability and must be organised by you and the local organiser for your heat.
We send out a monthly school newsletter outlining the preparation stage you need to focus on with your team each month and highlight any additional support available. This is sent each mid-month from the closing date of applications.
The Mock Trials team at Young Citizens is available throughout the process with phone or email assistance to provide support from the application stage, preparation and post-trial queries.

11. Expenses

We are unable to provide support for travel and accommodation to any heats, including regional heats. Please ensure that you have considered the cost implications of entering the competition before applying.

12. Heat day: what happens

Each local heat consists of two rounds in which teams will argue one case.
In Round 1, every team will argue both on behalf of the prosecution OR the defence.
In Round 2, all teams argue the opposite side.
In heats with uneven numbers, there may be a Round 3 to accommodate all schools in which case some teams may need to sit out during various rounds.
The highest scoring team/s from the local heat will proceed to the regional heat for their area where they will compete using a different case.

13. Judging

Each participating student is given a score out of ten for their performance by up to three judges. There is also a team score for each round, which is out of ten.
The scoring is based on criteria such as clarity, quality of arguments, accuracy, non-reliance on notes and timekeeping.
Judges’ decisions are always final and cannot be appealed.
The verdict of the trial (guilty or not guilty) is decided by the magistrates, but has no relevance to the scoring and therefore progression in the competition.

14. Overall scoring

As some judges will naturally mark higher or lower than others, it is not necessarily the team with the highest number of marks overall that will win. Therefore, we use a scoring ladder, as follows:

Highest number of trial wins – two or more judge’s award higher marks to a team in each round wins.
Highest number of individual wins (with highest trial wins) – out of a maximum of 6 judges across two rounds, the team with the highest number of wins by individual judges wins.
Highest overall points’ difference (with highest trial wins and individual wins) – where the overall points are added for each school and the difference is calculated. The team with the highest points’ difference wins.
Overall team performance (with highest trial wins, individual wins and highest overall points difference) –where the overall team score is added up across all judges in both rounds, the team with the highest team performance wins.

Got more questions?

View our Frequently Asked Questions or get in touch.