In a packed courtroom, plaintiff and defense attorneys recounted the tale of a 16-year-old boy who had a relapse of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and died after a bone marrow transplant.

All eyes focused intently as a plaintiff's expert witness came under fire, the scenario undoubtedly raising questions in the audience's minds:

* Was the experimental therapy the parents wanted to pursue a viable alternative accepted in the medical community?
* Did a chemotherapy overdose affect the boy's eligibility and success rate for a transplant?
* Was it typical for a treating physician to consult colleagues, even a hospital ethics panel, before deciding what treatment to pursue?

But instead of one judge on the bench, more than 30 judges presided over the mock trial.

After getting a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the case, judges got a chance to address their own questions to the doctors, scientists, lawyers and fellow judges participating in the scenario and others like it.