Trained dogs should be allowed to comfort witnesses during court proceedings, ABA House says
Image from Shutterstock.com.
The ABA House of Delegates resolved Monday to support the use of trained canines to comfort vulnerable witnesses during testimony.
Resolution 101A pushes for enacting laws allowing the use of canines specially trained for assisting witnesses also known as facility dogs. The report accompanying the resolution includes recommendations to protect the dogs’ welfare. The resolution, co-sponsored by the International Law Section and the Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division, was passed in a 202-135 vote.
In urging the House to pass the resolution, Gabrielle M. Buckley of the International Law Section said facility dogs would provide “meaningful access to justice” for victims and witnesses who face difficulties testifying in court.
Afternoon Briefs: Giuliani, Powell sued by another voting machine company; Cooley ups its bonuses
Voting machine company sues Fox News, lawyers
Voting machine company Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit Thursday against Fox News, three of its TV personalities, and lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. The suit claims that the defendants made Smartmatic the villain in a disinformation campaign claiming that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Another voting machine company, Dominion Voting Systems, has also sued Giuliani and Powell for claiming that its machines switched votes. Powell called the latest suit “just another political maneuver motivated by the radical left that has no basis in fact or law.” (CNN, the New York Times)
Obituaries
ABA Board of Governors member who died suddenly was a good lawyer but a better person, friends say
Photo of Kevin Curtin by Danny Duran.
Kevin Curtin, senior appellate counsel in the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts and the District 2 representative to the ABA Board of Governors, died suddenly Thursday.
“Kevin was a great lawyer,” Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan says. “He was somebody who really valued the profession and contributed to the profession.
“But as good a lawyer as he was, he was a better person. If you look at somebody’s life in terms of, were they successful and the criteria is did they make life better for somebody else? There are legions of people who can say, ‘My life was better in some way, personally or professionally, because of Kevin.’ “