Friday morning, a group of high school students from around the region got to experience arguing for a cause.

For the sixth year in a row, Bradford attorney Daniel Lang coordinated a mock trial competition for high school aged students, which was held at the McKean County Courthouse.

Students from local districts argued dual sides of a case pertaining to a young defendant who had a history of being bullied, both in school and over the internet, which culminated with him having a mental break from his normal behavior and flipping a chess table during a tournament, causing damages.

The district competition, which was free and open to the public, was both educational for participants and interesting for spectators in the audience. The Pennsylvania Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, which sponsors the state competition, donated the space for the mock trials to be held.

Spectators witnessed the prosecution and defense groups call witnesses and present evidence to support their case before jurors broke to deliberate.

The local counties competing are Elk, Cameron, McKean, Potter and part of Jefferson, including seven teams from Brockway, St. Marys, Otto-Eldred, Smethport, Kane, Oswayo Valley and Coudersport.

The jurors determine the winners in each trial based on the student teams’ abilities to prepare their case, present arguments and follow court rules.

This district competition will take place over two days. Friday was the preliminary trial rounds, with the top four teams returning back on Feb. 7 to compete in the playoff rounds.

The district champion team from the Feb. 7 playoff will compete in the regional competition in Williamsport, which will take place in late February or early March. The regional champion advances to the state tournament in late March in Harrisburg and finally the state champion team will compete in a national tournament, typically held in May each year.