Each competition requires that the team members write an appellate brief, either to a Court of Appeals or to the United States Supreme Court, based on a hypothetical set of facts and lower court decisions. After the brief is submitted, the team prepares oral arguments in the case. At the competition, the team argues against teams from other schools before panels of attorneys and judges. In most competitions, the winners are determined based on a combination of the brief score and success in the oral argument rounds. Awards are given to the winning team, as well as to the team writing the best brief and the best advocate from the oral argument rounds.
Competitions cover a wide variety of legal fields.
During the fall semester, teams from Stetson compete in competitions dealing with Worker's Compensation, Criminal Procedure, International Environmental Law, and Information Technology. Spring competitions include Bankruptcy, International Law, Environmental Law, Securities, Labor Law, Copyright and Unfair Trade Practices, Tax, and Ethics. Board members are selected each fall through a try-out competition. Each student who wants to try-out must write a brief based on a hypothetical fact pattern. Then, each student presents an oral argument on the issues to a panel of local attorneys and faculty members.