“What is a Court Dog?”
Earlier this year the NSW Law Society paid for three new Court Dogs - including one for the Newcastle Registry of the Family Court.
And recently, Sunny was sworn in to serve as a Therapy/Facility Dog for Newcastle.
A Facility Dog is a special type of Therapy Dog that is trained to work in a particular location, in this case, a court. Sunny has been specially trained by Guide Dogs NSW in this role.
Sunny will provide comfort and emotional support to people in the Family Court system, give a sense of normalcy to them of being in the Court building, assist with opening up communication for kids meeting Court experts and for witnesses giving evidence, provide a healthy distraction from an overwhelming trauma response and a physical source of calming touch.
Sunny is able to provide support to court users in a number of settings such as in the courtroom, court foyer and waiting areas, mediation rooms, and Court Children Services interviews.
In order for Sunny to do all this though a handler needs to attend Court with Sunny and there are lots of expenses associated with this work. Recently our team attended the Newcastle Law Society’s Trivia Night - which raised over $20,000 to contribute to these costs. Mullane Lindsay were proud sponsors of an auction item on the night and Rose from our Family Law team helped bring the hugely successful night together.
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