Julie Morrison believes victims of crime deserve to be treated with fairness and dignity and empowered to participate in court proceedings.
Working at the Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) in Victoria, she has seen how the court process can retraumatize people and how they can often disengage totally.
Her background in education and human behaviour, experience in working with dogs and her passion to help make the court process easier, led Julie to start the first pilot Court Support Dog Program in Australia.
Julie is a 2018 Churchill Fellow and studied Court Dog Programs in the USA and Canada. Seeing court dogs work in over 25 different settings inspired Julie to look into different ways court dogs could work in Australia.
Since her Fellowship, Julie has established
- A full time dog at the OPP
- Assisted three other agencies to start programs and obtain a dog
- Assisted and supported other agencies in Australia to start programs
- Formed the Justice Facility Dogs Australia network and launched the website
- Conducted the inaugural Justice Facility Dogs Conference
- Given presentations to judiciaries including Melbourne County Court, Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia and the Coroner’s Court of Queensland
In 2018 and 2021 Julie was awarded a Victorian Government Values and Culture Award for her work on the developing the Program and assisting other agencies.
Julie strives to bring dogs into the court system who will make a difference in the lives of victims of crime and make our courts more trauma sensitive.
Julie holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Melbourne and a Diploma of Education from Victoria College.
Listen to Julie's story 'A Dogs Day In Court' on The Wayfinders Poscast here.
Project
To study the use of dogs in court supporting vulnerable victims and witnesses giving evidence
Julie Morrison
Contact Fellow
Please provide some details as to why you wish to speak with this Fellow. The Trust will forward your enquiry on to this Fellow on your behalf.