what do these objections mean for mock trial?

Question

you dont need to answer all of them:
objection of relevance, objection 352, objection character, objection opinion of lay witness, objection of speculation, objection of Expert Witness and Opinion Testimony, objection of hearsay and its exceptions, objection leading question, objection compund question, objection narrative, objection argumentative, asked and answered, vague and ambiguous, non responsive, outside scope of cross

Answer 1

Oh, mock trial! I've never done the extracurricular, but we held one in my history class once, and I was a prosecutor - it was a great experience. I prepped by using a software program that simulated a trial and let you object to what the opposition said, but unfortunately I can't remember what it's called.

I don't have the time to write out what all these objections mean, so I've taken these answers from a website that seems to be associated with the American Mock Trial Association.

Relevance: Only exhibits and testimony that relate to the issues at trial should be admitted into evidence.
FORM OF OBJECTION: OBJECTION. THE TESTIMONY IS IRRELEVANT.

Character: Evidence about the character of a witness may not be introduced unless character of the person is an issue in the case; for example, evidence of a person’s temper may be relevant to an assault case, but not in a contact case. However, questions about a person’s ability to tell the truth are always admissible.
FORM OF OBJECTION: OBJECTION. THE WITNESS’S CHARACTER OR REPUTATION IS NOT AN ISSUE IN THIS TRIAL;
(OR)
OBJECTION. ONLY THE WITNESS’S REPUTATION/CHARACTER FOR TRUTHFULNESS IS AT ISSUE IN THIS TRIAL

Options: Witnesses may only give opinions about matters of which they have knowledge. If the opinion asked for would be known to a person of common knowledge and the witness had an opportunity to observe the matter for which the opinion is requested, the witness may answer the opinion question. This is called a lay opinion, as distinguished from an expert opinion.
FORM OF OBJECTION: OBJECTION, THESE MATTERS ARE NOT THE PROPER SUBJECT OF LAY OPINION TESTIMONY.

Speculation: A witness may not testify about the reasons behind the actions of another or guess about the meaning to be ascribed to the actions of another.
FORM OF OBJECTION: OBJECTION. THE QUESTION CALLS FOR SPECULATION.


Lack of Personal Knowledge: A witness, who is not an expert, may not testify to any matter unless the witness has personal knowledge of the matter.
FORM OF OBJECTION: OBJECTION. THE WITNESS LACKS PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE TO ENABLE THE WITNESS TO ANSWER THE QUESTION.

Hearsay: Any evidence of a statement made by someone who is not testifying in Court, and which is offered to show the truth of the statement is hearsay. If testimony is offered for the sole purpose of proving that the statement was made, it is not hearsay. Hearsay evidence is not admissible in court unless one of the exceptions noted below apply.
FORM OF OBJECTION: OBJECTION. THE QUESTION CALLS FOR HEARSAY; (OR)
OBJECTION. ALTHOUGH THE QUESTION ITSELF DID NOT CALL FOR HEARSAY, THE ANSWER IS HEARSAY, AND I ASK THAT THE HEARSAY PORTION OF THE ANSWER BE STRICKEN FROM THE RECORD.
Hearsay within Hearsay: Where a statement of one person appears in a document written by another person, one may have hearsay within hearsay. Before the document is admitted, an exception must apply to the document and the same, or a different exception, must also apply to the “non-author’s statement.”
FORM OF OBJECTION: OBJECTION, HEARSAY WITHIN HEARSAY.
EXCEPTIONS: There are exceptions to the hearsay rule that allow hearsay testimony to be admitted. Midlands recognizes the same exceptions as those contained in the Federal Rules of Evidence. These include, but are no longer limited to, the following:
1. Present sense impressions: These are statements describing an event or condition and made at the time the declarant was perceiving the event, or shortly thereafter.
2. Excited Utterances. These are statements made in response to the excitement or stress of an event or condition that could cause excitement or stress.
3. State of Mind. These are statements that concern one’s motive, intent, feelings, pain, or health.
4. Medical Records: Statements in a medical record made for the purpose of diagnosis or treatment.
5. Business Records. These are records or reports of acts or events made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity, and if it was the regular practice of that business activity to make the record or report, unless the source of the information or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate a lack of trustworthiness. It is possible that a portion of a document will be admissible under this exception while another portion of the same document will not be admissible.
Midlands also recognizes:
1. Former testimony given by a witness in another hearing or deposition where the party against whom the testimony is now offered had an opportunity to develop the testimony by direct, cross, or redirect examination.
2. Dying Declarations: Statements made by a declarant who believed his/her death was imminent.
3. Declarations against interest. These are statements made by someone, not a party to the action, which are against the declarant’s economic, civil, or criminal interest.

Leading Questions: On direct or redirect examination, the attorney may not ask leading questions. A leading question is one that suggests the answer desired by the examiner; often such questions call for a “yes” or “no” answer, although not all questions that call for a yes or no answer are therefore leading.
FORM OF OBJECTION; OBJECTION, COUNSEL IS LEADING THE WITNESS.

Narrative Questions: The purpose of direct examination is to get the witness to tell the relevant facts. The question asked must not seek such a broad range of information that the witness is allowed to narrate the entire story with one or two answers. Proper examinations proceed in a question and answer fashion.
FORM OF OBJECTION: OBJECTION. THE QUESTION CALLS FOR A NARRATIVE ANSWER.

Protecting the Witness: If, on examination, the opposing attorney is treating a witness roughly or asking the same question several times in an effort to harass the witness, the other attorney may object to protect the witness.
FORM OF OBJECTION: OBJECTION, COUNSEL IS HARRASSING THE WITNESS; (OR) COUNSEL IS BEING ARGUMENTATIVE.

Asked and Answered: If a question has been previously put to the witness by the questioner and answered, the opposing attorney may raise this objection. Generally, the Court may allow some leeway in ruling on this objection.
FORM OF OBJECTION: OBJECTION, ASKED AND ANSWERED.

Beyond the Scope: Unless the questions relate to the truthfulness of the witness, questions asked on redirect examination may not exceed the matters addressed on cross-examination.
FORM OF OBJECTION: OBJECTION, COUNSEL IS ASKING THE WITNESS ABOUT MATTERS BEYOND THE SCOPE OF THE (DIRECT, CROSS, ETC.) EXAMINATION

More objections and the proper formats for them can be found at the first link that I've provided as a source.

I couldn't find a few of your objections on that page. Here's what I could find about them.

Objection 352: I couldn't find a specific answer as to what this was, but a quick Google search seemed to show that it's objecting as to a question's relevancy.

Compound: This refers to more than one question being asked at a time.

Vague & Ambiguous: This one pretty much means what it sounds like - the question is too vague and can be taken any number of ways.

Nonresponsive: I found this quote: "Objections to the responsiveness of an answer shall be stated as "objection, nonresponsive" and/or "move to strike." Upon request of the examining attorney, the question shall then be read back to the deponent. All motions to strike shall be preserved for later ruling of the Court." As far as I can tell, you would use this if a witness wasn't answering questions properly.

I hope this all helped somewhat. Good luck!

Answer 2

Mock Trial Objections And Responses