CALIFORNIA AUORNJYS FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE and HASTINGS COLLEGE OF THE LAW NATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIAL COMPETITION October 11-14, 2018 Welcome! We welcome you to this year s tournament. We have an outstanding group of schools competing, and we will do everything we can to make it a worthwhile, fun and educational experience. There are a few ways in which you can help us to make the competition run smoothly which we address below. The coaches meeting will be at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 11 on the ;8th floor of the federal courthouse (450 Golden Gate Ave.) in the Attorney Lounge. We will cover last minute issues at that time. Courtrooms As you know, the competition will be held in the federal courthouse at 450 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco. This is a federal courthouse in full operation during the day. Our rounds begin at 6:00 on Thursday and Friday, and we need students here no later than 5:15. At 6:00, the guards will not let anyone else into the building. This always creates a problem, since local teams have friends and family who drive up after work to watch, and some don t arrive before 6:00. We are sorry, but they can t get in after 6:00 because the building is closed to visitors at that time. Since it s an open courthouse up until then, anyone can
absolutely enter at any time up until 6:00, but be aware that the line to get in takes a lot of time and your team may want to come early. BE SURE YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS BRING A VALID PICTURE ID WITH THEM. Last year a student had no ID and was not allowed to enter the building. Don t let that happen. On the first night of the competition, students should go to the ceremonial courtroom on the 19th floor at 5:30 for instructions. We ask you to keep the courtrooms clean and not leave anything behind. We are asking the coaches to be responsible for making sure that before your team leaves the courtroom, everything is as it was before you entered. Nothing should be moved while you are in the courtroom. Please do not use court whiteboards, move boxes in the courtrooms, and under no circumstances may anyone sit at the courtroom deputy s desk (the spot right in front of the judge s bench). We are authorized to only use the judge s seat, the jury box, counsel tables, and the witness chair. Students may not move counsel s table or podiums to change the configuration of the courtroom. Only water is allowed in the courtrooms (and that applies to students, coaches and guests) no coffee, power drinks, sodas, other food or beverages are allowed. The courtrooms do not have air conditioning after 5:00. As is the case every year, that means they will be hot. Students should not enter the courtroom before 5:45, however much they want to go in to set up. The sooner they go in the hotter the courtrooms get, and that s not a good thing. If, during the trial, the courtroom becomes too hot, open the door and prop it open with a book or whatever else you can find. Please ask your team and guests to be quiet when they are on break or after they finish so they do not disturb other trials with doors open. After the trials are completed, we will be asking the judges to keep their remarks to a total of 10 minutes. When they are done, head straight to the doors downstairs and take everything with you. The cleaning staff is working late into the night to clean the courtrooms after we leave for tomorrow s
court proceedings. Timekeeping We will have a bailiff in each courtroom, and they have been instructed carefully on how to keep time. The time determination by the bailiff is final, so please don t sit in the back of the courtroom with a stopwatch expecting us to give your team more time when you come to us with a complaint. Of course, if, despite our training, the timekeeper really screws up (i.e. counts all the time, both direct and cross, against one team), you can come to us with a complaint. But should your concern be that the bailiff is 5 minutes off what you think should be the time remaining, we will not interfere with the bailiffs calculations. The bailiffs will gladly give you time checks afier the prosecution the defendant s case. If you ask, the bailiff will count down the final time in a trial and show the students 5 minutes, 1 minute, and Stop. The judges have been told to strictly stop the trial when time has expired. We will be giving each team placards with their team letter at the coaches meeting. Please use them when your team is in the courtroom so that the judges know which team (by letter only) they are judging. Because it comes up each year, please instruct your team not to give anything to the judges, such as a placard with your team member s names, a copy of the problem or a trial notebook, a notice of appearance, or anything else. Also, please instruct your team not to offer to give a brief overview or statement of the case before he round begins. It seems that in recent years some teams want to give a mini-opening before they give their actual opening, and we ask that no team make that offer. Your teams are of course free to explain anything about the case during the motions in limine time period, but not before. Housekeeping matters about logistics of the trial are allowed and not timed.
The Neighborhood We wish it wasn t so, but the area around the courthouse, particularly the area east towards downtown, is a very rough neighborhood at night, and of late it seems to be getting worse. When you get downstairs after the rounds on Thursday and Friday night, we do not recommend that you walk back to your hotel. Take a cab or Uber, and call it from downstairs to come get you. few cabs drive by the Turk St. entrance, so it s virtually impossible to hail a cab. Contact Person/Competition Headquarters If anything comes up during the competition, please call Geoff Hansen at 415-370-5694. Any complaints should be referred to the CACJ Competition Committee as set forth in the rules (copy attached), which is located at Competition Headquarters on the 1 9th floor mid-way down the hall. feel free to come by should anything arise which merits attention. Announcement of Quarter-Finalists We have asked everyone to walk over to Soluna s Restaurant, 272 McAllister (which is one block away) after Friday s round to await the announcement of the quarter-finalists. We ask that all teams be prepared to give us a copy of the names of participants, coaches and guests should your team move on. Please arrive no later than 8:30 on Saturday morning on the Turk St. (back side) entrance to the Courthouse. We will check folks in and get you up to your courtrooms. Coaches should be prepared to get their students lunch (there is a Subway shop one block away) after the morning round should your team move on, because there won t be much time in between the quarter and semi-final rounds. The final round will be held at 10 a.m. at Hastings, 19$ McAllister St. (one block from the courthouse) on Sunday morning, and we will explain the logistics to the two teams who have made it to the final round.
We have attached the pairings for the first two rounds, along with the school team letter designations. The pairings were created by a disinterested third party drawing the letters for each team from a hat. We ve doubled checked the schedule, and believe that none of the schools with two teams are seeing each other or teams from other schools twice. But if we missed something, let us know. Because some of our courtrooms have letter designations, students/guests sometimes get confused when they look at the list. The courtrooms are on the left, the team letters to their right. We wish your teams the best of luck, and thanks for being part of this year s tournament.
Elisabeth 2018 CACJ/HASTINGS NATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIAL COMPETITION TEAM LETTERS A. University of San Diego School of Law (Team 1) B. Southwestern Law School (Team 1) C. Arizona State University (Team 1) D. Pace - Haub School of Law E. Texas A&M University School of Law F. Santa Clara University (Team 1) G. Loyola University Chicago School of Law H. University of San Francisco, School of Law I. University of California, Berkeley J. Golden Gate University K. St. Louis University School of Law L. Brooklyn Law School M. University of Colorado Law School N. Thomas Jefferson School of Law 0. University of San Diego School of Law (Team 2) P. Southwestern Law School (Team 2) Q. Arizona State University (Team 2) R. University of North Carolina School of Law S. University of Wisconsin Law School T. Santa Clara University (Team 2)
CALIfORNIA AllORNEYS for CRIMINAL JUSTICE I-TASTINGS COLLEGE Of THE LAW NATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIAL COMPETITION October 11-14, 2018 JUDGES: PROCEED TO ATTORNEY LOUNGE, 1 8TH FLOOR STUDENTS/COACHES/GUESTS: PROCEED TO CEREMONIAL COURTROOM, 19TH FLOOR (Thursday); ASSIGNED COURTROOMS (Friday) BAILIFFS: PROCEED TO COMPETITION HEADQUARTERS, 19TH FLOOR THURSDAY Courtroom Floor Prosecution Defense A 15 A K B 15 B L C 15 C M D 15 D N E 15 E 0 F 15 F P 2 17 G Q 3 17 H R 4 17 I S 6 17 J T FRIDAY courtroom Floor Prosecution Defense A 15 P G B 15 S A C 15 R I D 15 Q J E 15 T C F 15 L H 2 17 M B 3 17 N F 4 17 0 D 6 17 K E