Florida High School Appellate Brief Writing & Moot Court Competition Rules & Guidelines

An appeal from a trial court to an appellate court normally involves two components: a written brief and an oral argument. In this exercise, you will prepare a principal brief to the Florida Supreme Court. All teams who submit a brief that complies with the rules of the competition will have an opportunity to participate in an oral argument before a District Court of Appeal. Each student who authors a brief should be prepared to present an oral argument for both the Petitioner and the Respondent. Selected teams will advance in the competition, having the opportunity to present oral arguments in the Florida Supreme Court.

Rule 1: Teams

1. Each team must consist of two students from the same school. Florida public, charter, and private high school students, as well as homeschool students, are eligible to participate. Up to two teams from per school may submit a brief in the competition.
2. One student should be designated as a "lead attorney" to address logistical questions from the competition organizers and from the court during oral argument. This designation should be made on the team's registration form. The team’s teacher will also be copied on correspondence from the competition organizers.
3. Teams may use attorney coaches and teachers as advisors to guide them through the process of preparing the brief and oral arguments; however, the writing of the briefs must be the sole work of the students. Permissible assistance is limited to discussion of the facts, case law, and issues with the students. Attorneys and teachers are strictly prohibited from writing, proofreading, and/or editing any portion of the brief. At oral argument, students may not confer with a teacher or coach once the round begins until after the round is complete.
4. Each team is permitted to submit a maximum of one brief, either for the petitioner or the respondent.
5. Each teacher/sponsor may only submit two briefs whether the briefs are for the same side or opposing sides. Teachers should exercise their discretion in selecting the top two briefs from their school to submit (on behalf of up to two teams). If a teacher has to choose between more than two briefs to submit to the competition, the teacher should treat these briefs as final submissions to the competition. Teachers should keep in mind the permissible assistance described in paragraph 3. No entity (e.g. school, homeschool, etc.) may register more than two teams.
6. Teams will need to be prepared to present oral argument for both parties (the petitioner and the respondent) at every round of the competition. Either a teacher or an attorney coach must attend oral arguments with students.
7. Team registration forms should be completed and submitted with the team's brief on or before the due date. At competition, teams will be identified only by code.
8. At oral argument, students will announce their names and team codes at the beginning of every round to the judging panel. No information identifying the team, beyond the students' names and team code, should be provided to the judges.

Rule 2: The Packet

1. The Moot Court packet and case problem are independent of the Florida High School Mock Trial Competition case. The Moot Court packet and case problem have no impact on the mock trial case, and the mock trial case has no impact on the moot court packet.
2. Students should assume the Moot Court packet and case problem are complete factually and legally. Briefs that challenge the validity of issues or facts beyond the scope of the those questioned in the Moot Court case problem will be disqualified.
3. Students may only utilize the case law referenced in the Moot Court packet and case problem. It is only acceptable to cite cases that are contained within provided case law. Any deviation is a rules violation that will result in a deduction of five points from the team's overall brief score.
4. Students may not construct additional facts not found in the Moot Court case problem. Any information utilized that cannot be fairly inferred from the moot court case problem will be considered beyond the scope, and therefore, a rules violation that will result in a deduction of five points from the team's overall brief score.

Rule 3: Competition Format

1. This competition is composed of two phases: (1) the brief writing phase; and (2) the oral argument phase.

Rule 4: The Brief

1. Submit student briefs, in PDF format, by 5:00 p.m. Eastern on Jan. 19, 2026. Email any questions about the brief to Ruby Munguia by the due date, using "Florida Bar High School Moot Court Competition" as the email subject.
2. Each brief should follow the format of the sample brief available on the competition website, including the following sections: cover page, table of contents, opinion below, questions presented, statement of the case, summary of argument, arguments, and conclusion. Failure to adhere to the format may lead to disqualification.
3. The entire brief must be no longer than 25 pages inclusive of cover page and table of contents. The pages must be letter- sized 8 ½ x 11. Format the text by allowing one- inch margins. All briefs must be typed and double-spaced. The type-style should be Arial or Bookman Old Style 13-point font and each paragraph should be indented. Page numbers should appear centered at the bottom of each page. A cover page should clearly identify "Brief for Petitioner" or "Brief for Respondent" and list the participants' names, school, address, telephone numbers, and email addresses.
4. Pursuant to Rule 2, briefs may not reference any case law beyond what is presented in the case problem and may not include any manufactured or researched facts beyond what is found in the moot court case problem specifically. It is only acceptable to cite cases that are contained within provided case law. You can utilize on-line research through a variety of sources. You should be able to find most of the cited cases using FindLaw.
5. Legal citation is not required but is encouraged. When first citing a U.S. Supreme Court case, you should cite to the U.S. Reporter. For example, when a brief cites to "Jones v. United States, 463 U.S. 354, 364 (1983)," the number 463 is the volume number, "U.S." stands for the U.S. Reporter, the books in which the Supreme Court cases are published, 354 is the first page of the cited case, and 364 is the exact page in the case upon which either the quoted language or the referenced portion of the case appears.

6. Teams using primary and secondary sources should include proper attribution (citation) to those sources. Plagiarism and use of generative artificial intelligence is strictly prohibited.
7. Briefs may not directly cite case law that is within the provided case law. For example, if the Smith case (in the provided case law) quotes the Jones case (not in the provided case law), briefs may not cite directly to the Jones case but may cite "Smith (quoting Jones)."

Rule 5: The Oral Argument

1. Two students must participate for a team per round. Both students must speak and each one will address one of the two questions in each round. Only one student may present rebuttal for petitioner. The teacher is required to attend the oral argument with the students at the District Court of Appeal, and if selected, at the semi-final and final round in Tallahassee. The same citation rules that apply to the written brief also apply to the oral argument.
2. Each team is given 20 minutes to present its case, as outlined below:

3.  Teams should identify an alternate in the event that a team member cannot participate. If a team, or a portion of the team, fails to appear within ten minutes of the time indicated, the team will compete with an incomplete team.
4. No communication should occur between students participating in the round and other team members, teachers, coaches, or anyone else in the audience outside the bar during the oral argument round. Any communication with anyone outside of the partner student during that round will constitute a rules violation.
5. Students should display dignity and respect to the judges, staff, and other competition personnel. Additionally, teams should respect each other. Courtroom conduct is expected at all times, regardless of whether the team is arguing before the court, sitting in the courtroom, or moving about the courthouse. The same rules of courtroom conduct apply to virtual oral arguments and in person oral arguments.
6. Dress should be professional, courtroom attire.
7. During oral arguments, students will be scored based on the criteria found on the score sheet in the packet.
8. Scores and winners will not be disclosed after a round, but verbal critiques will be given.

Rule 6: Videotaping/Photography

1. Cameras and recording devices are permitted in certain courtrooms; however, the use of such equipment may not be disruptive and must be approved in advance of the competition by The Florida Bar's designated competition administrator.
2. When one team requests to videotape during oral argument, the opposing team must be consulted, and their permission granted prior to taping.

Rule 7: Viewing an Argument

1. Team members, alternates, attorney coaches, teacher coaches, and any other persons directly associated with a team are not allowed to view other teams in competition so long as their team remains in the competition.
2. Judges will maintain order in the courtroom. If observers are disorderly, they will be asked to vacate the premises.

Rule 8: Decisions

1. All decisions of the judges—as to briefs and oral arguments—are final.
2. All notes and score sheets prepared by the judges will remain confidential.
3. The judges may provide feedback to the teams if time allows.

Rule 9: Team Advancement

1. Teams will be scored separately on their written briefs and their oral argument presentations. Students who author the briefs need to be able and prepared to present both sides at an oral argument.
2. During the scoring of the written briefs, the panel of evaluators will give each brief a numerical score consistent with the score sheet located on the website. The scores from each of the judges in the panel will be used to calculate the team's average brief score.
3. Each team that submits a brief that complies with the rules of the competition will be given the opportunity to present oral argument before a District Court of Appeal, in most instances the team's District. During the oral argument competition, the judges will rank the teams in the order of their scoring. The teams will be assigned an equivalent score to be averaged with their brief score.
4. The team’s brief score and oral argument score will be combined to determine the team with the highest score in each District. That team will advance to the semi-final round in Tallahassee to argue at the semi-final oral argument round in front of the First District Court of Appeal (six teams total will advance).
5. During the semi-final oral argument competition, a panel of judges will score student performances in each round. The team that receives the higher score from each judge will be awarded that judge's ballot. The team with highest number of ballots wins the round. The top two teams will be determined by the panel of DCA judges evaluating the rounds. A Best Brief and Best Orator award will also be presented at the state competition.
6. These top two teams will meet in the final round of competition and will argue before the Florida Supreme Court. The team receiving the most ballots in the final round will win the competition. Awards will be presented to the finalist team and the winning team.

All questions should be submitted in writing via email to Ruby Munguia with the subject line "Florida Bar High School Moot Court Competition" followed by the school's name.