This is the 5th year of this hugely successful competition. The dates are September 24-26, 2026. Presiding judges for the rounds are actual judges and ABOTA members serve as evaluators.
There is no law school competition in the country like this one. Started by TEX-ABOTA in 2022, TEX-ABOTA coordinates with all 10 Texas law schools; it is the only law school tournament dedicated to teaching law students how to pick juries. The tournament runs for three days each September in a different Texas city and features 10 teams (one from each Texas law school), 23 presiding judges, over 50 TEX-ABOTA members as evaluators, and over 300 local citizens (serving as prospective jurors). Working in trial teams of three, law students both pick a jury and then present opening statements to the jury in a civil case. Now in its fifth year, the tournament has traveled from San Antonio to Dallas to Houston to Lubbock and now to Austin, with Waco as the site host in 2027. There is a recent story on the tournament in the Texas Bar Journal’s online site https://blog.texasbar.com/2026/04/articles/mock-trial/university-of-texas-school-of-law-wins-tex-abotas-2025-best-in-texas-voir-dire-competition/ and the tournament was discussed on the national mock trial podcast, Unscripted Direct, in the fall of 2022. Also, TEX-ABOTA has previously made a documentary video about the tournament.