PAINESVILLE, Ohio -- The seven judges of the Lake County Common Pleas Court announced their newest employee is a courthouse facility dog, named Atticus.
Atticus is a 70 pound yellow Labrador Retriever. He's 2 years old.
He will be seen throughout the three courthouses wearing his distinctive yellow and blue vest showing he is on the job.
Atticus was provided at no charge to the court or county by Canine Companions for Independence, of Delaware, Ohio.
The court will pay only for the on-going care of the dog. Ownership of the dog remains with Canine Companions, which also insures the dog.
Marie Umholtz, a magistrate with the Domestic Relations Division of the court employed by Judge Falkowski, is the dog’s facilitator and primary caretaker.
She will accompany Atticus while he is on duty in the courthouse; the dog accompanies Magistrate Umholtz home at night and is a member of her family.
The dog was named after Atticus Finch, the fictional lawyer in Maycomb County, Alabama, featured in Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel of 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird.
The Lake County Common Pleas Court judges have developed an innovative collaborative program for use of the dog in all divisions, General, Domestic Relations, Juvenile, and Probate.
In Ohio, there are three other facility dogs in use in the legal system: the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office, the Marion County Family Court and a child advocacy center in Greene County has a facility dog that helps while children testify during trial.
Lake County Domestic Relations Court will have the only in-house mediation program in the country using a facility dog to assist in court-ordered mediation sessions.
His primary purpose is to ease stress for folks during legal proceedings. Atticus’s work days could include helping a victim-witness remain calm during testimony; visits to the juvenile detention center as a stress reliever for the children; keeping a ward or guardian calm in probate court or to help welcome a child into his/her adopted family; or attending interviews in the judge’s office of children in divorce cases.
Judge Falkowski, on occasion, has used her own dog while interviewing children in contested custody cases,
and noted that the reduction in the child's stress was immediate with the dog's presence, which served as a fun icebreaker for a child in a tense situation.
The rigorous application process for a facility dog began in September 2014, required the cooperation and approval of all of the judges and county commissioners, and included a detailed personal interview of the prospective facilitator in Delaware, Ohio along with a handling session with a dog on the premises.
The judges are most appreciative of Marie and Bob Umholtz’s cooperation and dedication to having a courthouse facility dog become part of their family, and Judge Falkowski’s efforts to secure the acquisition and use of the dog.