Each team must write and submit one brief (seven copies) to the Moot Court Board.
All research necessary for the successful completion of this problem is cited on the Relevant Cases List. Teams may conduct additional research if they choose.
Partners on the same team will receive the same final brief score, regardless of who wrote which part of the brief. Each brief will be graded by 5 judges (Moot Court Board Members). The high and low scores will be averaged and added to the remaining three scores. This total will be averaged again (i.e., divided by 4) to produce a final brief score.
The following information applies to grading of briefs:
Anonymous Grading: Teams must NOT use their names on their brief, but instead must identify themselves by their team number assigned to them and recorded on the team packet.
Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure: The form of the Briefs must conform (with one exception) to the Requirements of Rules 28 and 32, copies of which are included in the packet. The one exception is that the length of the brief shall not exceed 25 pages (modifying Rule 28(g)).
The Bluebook: Citations must conform to the proper Bluebook format.
This competition is governed by the Vanderbilt Law School Honor Code.
Oral Argument
Teams must participate in the Oral Arguments as indicated by the Oral Argument Schedule. Times will be posted at least one week prior to the beginning of oral arguments.
Rescheduling: Preliminary and final oral arguments ordinarily will NOT be rescheduled since there are organizational difficulties in coordinating the schedules of the judges, attorneys, professors and Moot Court Board Members who will judge the oral arguments. Acceptable reasons for rescheduling are: medical emergencies, illness, and death in the family. Fly-backs are NOT an acceptable reason, and individual team members must schedule fly-backs around their scheduled oral arguments. Please note that advancement to the octo-finals carries the obligation to participate in the oral arguments and that the fly-back rule continues to apply.
All teams will argue twice orally, once on-brief on (TBA) and a second time off-brief (TBA). All arguments will be made in front of a panel of three judges.
The panel will ideally be made up of one faculty member, one local attorney, and one Moot Court Board member. This composition may be amended at the discretion of the Moot Court Board, should a panelist cancel at the last minute.
This competition is governed by the Vanderbilt Law School Honor Code.
Scoring
Each panelist will score each team member individually based on the "Oral Argument Scoring Guidelines."
The top 16 teams will advance to the octo-finals based on their overall competition scores. The overall competition score will be comprised of:
the final brief score (50%), and
the individual oral argument scores of each team member from their on-brief (25% for each team member) and off-brief (25% for each team member) oral arguments.
The individual oral argument scores of each team member will be computed from the oral argument scores received from the panelists during the on-brief and off-brief oral arguments. The highest and lowest score of the six oral argument scores will be discarded and the four remaining scores will be averaged to produce a final oral score for each team member.
Once a team reaches the octo-finals, the scoring from every prior oral argument is discarded and the only oral argument score from that round is used in the computations to determine which teams advance. Scoring for advancement from the octo-finals, quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals will be based on the following weights: Round Team Score / Brief Score:
Octo-Finals 50% 50%
Quarter-Finals 75% 25%
Semi-Finals 0% 100%
Finals 0% 100% Please note, however, that team members continue to be scored individually in these advanced rounds.
The eight teams (16 individuals) that win their octo-final oral arguments, i.e., advance to the quarter-finals, will automatically become members of the Moot Court Board.
The remaining 14 members of the Moot Court Board will be selected at-large. All competitors who did not advance to the quarter-finals, including those who did not advance to the octo-finals, are eligible to be selected at-large to the Moot Court Board. The 14 competitors with the highest overall individual scores will be selected at-large. Overall individual scores are comprised of the final brief score (50%) and the individual’s oral argument score (50%) from the initial on-brief and off-brief oral arguments; i.e., the octo-final oral argument scores are not considered in the calculation. The individual’s oral argument score is calculated independently, and thus one team member could be selected at-large to the Moot Court Board while the other team member is not.
