WEST VIRGINIA RECORD

CHARLESTON -– More middle schools and high schools around West Virginia have scheduled mock trials as part of the Supreme Court's West Virginia Law Adventure program, and some have rescheduled due to weather and other conflicts.

The new schedule follows:

* 10 a.m. Feb. 11, Horace Mann Middle School, Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Judge Tod Kaufman in his courtroom, Kanawha County Judicial Annex, 111 Court Street, Charleston.

* 10:30 a.m. Feb. 14; Western Greenbrier Middle School; Eleventh Judicial Circuit Judge Joseph C. Pomponio Jr.; Greenbrier County Courthouse, 200 North Court Street, Lewisburg.

* 10 a.m. Feb. 16, Stonewall Jackson Middle School, Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Judge Duke Bloom in his courtroom, Kanawha County Judicial Annex, 111 Court Street, Charleston.

* 11 a.m. Feb. 18, Herbert Hoover High School, Kanawha County Magistrate Julie M. Yeager, Kanawha County Judicial Annex, 111 Court Street, Fifth Floor Visiting Judges Courtroom, Charleston.

* 9 a.m. Feb. 25, Keyser Primary-Middle School, Twenty-First Judicial Circuit Judge Philip B. Jordan, Mineral County Courthouse, 150 Armstrong Street, Keyser.

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 in the rules book. Students are to mail their written transcripts to the West Virginia State Bar. The Bar's Young Lawyers Section will choose winners, and the winners will be invited to perform their mock trials at the Supreme Court.

Students' trips to the Supreme Court will be paid for by a grant from the West Virginia Bar Foundation. Before mailing in their transcripts, participating West Virginia classes must perform their trials at a courthouse in front of a judicial officer. The trips to the courthouses also are paid for with the grant from the West Virginia Bar Foundation.