CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Chief Circuit Judge Louis H. “Duke” Bloom will speak to students at Tyler Middle School at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 2. Judge Bloom will talk about judicial efforts to reduce truancy and show the Supreme Court film The Foundation of Justice: Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Judge Bloom also will preside in two Kanawha County middle school mock trials in his courtroom as part of the Supreme Court’s West Virginia Law Adventure program. Students from Stonewall Jackson Middle School will present their mock trial at 10 a.m. on February 8 while students from Horace Mann Middle School will present their trial at 10 a.m. on February 15.

Twenty-First Judicial Circuit Judge Philip B. Jordan presided in Keyser Primary Middle School’s mock trial on January 27 in his courtroom in Keyser as part of the same program.

Unlike other mock trial programs in which students perform cases using scripts or materials prepared by adults, in West Virginia Law Adventure each class writes its own script based on one of three criminal case scenarios in the Law Adventure rules book. Students mail their written transcripts to the West Virginia State Bar. The Bar’s Young Lawyers Section choses winners, and the winners are invited to perform their mock trials at the Supreme Court.

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