WitEx provides New Zealand law students a unique opportunity to practise their advocacy skills in a friendly environment resembling a real courtroom hearing. The competition is fun, rewarding and a great training experience for aspiring courtroom lawyers.
The preliminary rounds and finals are held in the first half of each year, and MinterEllisonRuddWatts has proudly sponsored this competition for more than 25 years.
WitEx requires you to act as counsel in a mock court hearing before a judge. You will either appear as counsel for the prosecution/plaintiff or the defence/defendant. In each round, you will present an opening and closing address to the court and call one witness to prove your set of facts and support your case.
The key to success at WitEx is your direct examination and cross-examination of the witnesses, and you will learn a lot from the experience.
The problem question will be given to you 90 minutes before the hearing. It helps to have a general understanding of the law of evidence – 20/100 marks are allocated to how you deal with evidence law. The most important skills to demonstrate are an ability to get the information you need from a witness and to present compelling arguments.
Winners from each regional competition have the opportunity to travel to Australia midyear to compete against the winners from each Australian university at the ALSA Conference.
MinterEllisonRuddWatts congratulates the winners of each regional university WitEx Competition for 2019:
| University: | Winner: | Runner-up: |
| University of Auckland | Bronwyn Wilde | Luke Sweeney |
| AUT University | Tessa Whale | Chontell Lewis |
| University of Canterbury | Robert Petch | Tom Bagnell |
| University of Otago | Jacobi Kohu-Morris | Penny Mander |
| Victoria University of Wellington | Oliver Fredrickson | Fergie Catayoc |
| University of Waikato | Tania Powell | Keana Fletcher-Mathews |
| University: | Contact: | Dates: |
| University of Auckland | William Turner 021 349 049 Max Kwan 021 0248 5661 |
Preliminary: 9 March 2020
Semi Finals: 10 March 2020 Finals: 11 March 2020 |
| University of Waikato | Jordyn Coxhead 027 882 4571 Tish Dixon 027 816 8164 |
Yet to be confirmed, but likely to be 6 – 9 April 2020 |
| University of Canterbury | Amelia Gunson 027 867 2730 Grechen Nicholls 021 145 9210 |
Preliminary: 25 March 2020
Semi Finals: 26 March 2020 Finals: 27 March 2020 |
| University of Otago | Molly Dore 027 384 9703 Antonia Post 027 363 0919 |
Preliminary: 4 May 2020
Semi Finals: 5 May 2020 Finals: 8 May 2020 |
| Victoria University of Wellington | Francesca Wilson 021 255 3516 Rita Shasha 021 110 0350 |
Preliminary: 16 March 2020
Semi finals: 17 March 2020 Finals: 18 March 2020 |
| Auckland University of Technology | Marlan Prabahar 021 110 9947 Isha Nirmalan 027 298 5824 |
Preliminary: 16 March 2020
Semi Finals: 17 March 2020 Finals: 19 March 2020 |