They need to pass a certain number of diplomacy checks and all that. Should the be made aware of how the meta of the trial works, or should it just go naturally?
I told them it was based on their ability to sway the crowd, which would manifest itself in the form of a number of Diplomacy checks, but that they'd receive substantial, necessary bonuses for finding the right evidence and conclusions for presenting them, and that the evidence was generally of more worth than the presentation.
Thus, they took away that they need to find as much evidence as possible, draw the right conclusions, then make the highest Diplomacy check possible, which is about right.