W.Va. Law Adventure mock trials rescheduled

CHARLESTON -- Two middle school mock trials that are part of the West Virginia Supreme Court's West Virginia Law Adventure program are being rescheduled due to weather.

Nutall Middle School in Fayette County has moved its mock trial, originally scheduled for Jan. 7, to 10 a.m. Thursday, January 14. It will still be held at the Fayette County Courthouse in Fayetteville in front of Twelfth Judicial Circuit Judge John W. Hatcher Jr.

Stonewall Jackson Middle School has cancelled the mock trial it was to hold on Jan. 8 at the Kanawha County Judicial Annex in Charleston. A new date has not been set, but it will still be held before Thirteenth Circuit Judge Duke Bloom.

Unlike other mock trial programs in which students perform cases using scripts or materials prepared by adults, in West Virginia Law Adventure each class was asked to write its own script based on one of three criminal case scenarios described in the rules book.

Students are to mail their written transcripts to the West Virginia State Bar by March 1. The Bar's Young Lawyers Section will choose winners, and the winners will be invited to perform their mock trials at the Supreme Court on April 29. Students' trips to the Supreme Court also will be paid for by the Bar Foundation grant.

Participating West Virginia classes must perform their trial transcripts at a courthouse in front of a judicial officer. The trips to the courthouses are paid for with a grant from the West Virginia Bar Foundation.

Other participating schools, the dates and locations they will perform their scripts will be:

* Keyser Middle School in Mineral County, 1 p.m. Jan. 14 at the Mineral County Courthouse before Twenty-First Judicial Circuit Judge Philip B. Jordan.

Belington Middle School in Barbour County, 10 a.m. Jan. 19 at the Barbour County Courthouse in Philippi before Magistrate Kathi S. McBee.

Bluefield Middle School in Mercer County (two classes), 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Jan. 20 at the Mercer County Courthouse in Princeton before Ninth Judicial Circuit Judge Omar Aboulhosn.

Ritchie County Middle School, 9 a.m. Jan. 22 at the Ritchie County Courthouse in Harrisville before Magistrate Teresa C. Harper.

Princeton Middle School in Mercer County, 10 a.m. Jan. 22 at the Mercer County Courthouse in Princeton before Judge Aboulhosn.

Horace Mann Middle School in Kanawha County, 10 a.m. Jan. 22 at the Kanawha County Judicial Annex in Charleston before Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Judge Tod Kaufman.