National Pretrial Competition
The National Pretrial Competition combines real world pretrial and trial practice. Courts across the country use pretrial hearings to determine constitutional, evidentiary, and procedural matters before trial. NPTC gives student advocates the opportunity to practice a complex hearing by directing and crossing 4 witnesses and making complex factual and legal arguments on multiple evidentiary issues. Students will develop skills for properly researching, analyzing, and litigating important, case-dispositive, pretrial matters in an evidentiary hearing almost identical to a full trial. Prior to the hearing, as in real practice, the students prepare for their hearing by writing memorandums of law on each side of the case in support of their positions.
We will accept 16 teams, and each team is guaranteed 4 rounds (the fourth preliminary round will be a silent quarterfinal). To further competition accessibility, we will invite from the applicant pool two schools that have not competed at NPTC within the last five years.
The Eighteenth Annual National Pretrial Competition will take place from October 2-5, 2025, in the new Advocacy Institute at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, FL. Applications are due by June 15, 2025, at 5 p.m. EST. Submit your application (or through the button below). We will select the competitor schools by June 30, 2025. Accepted schools must accept the selection and submit the $850 non-refundable registration fee by July 10, 2025.
Please mark your calendars with the following dates:
Problem Release: August 1, 2025
Memorandums of Law due: September 1, 2025
Evidentiary Hearing: On Stetson's College of Law Campus from October 2-5, 2025
Please email [email protected] with any questions.