T1 and Jury Service

This is the information from, Her Majesty's Court Service official website. The best place to obtain information regarding Jury Service, they are the people who decide yea or nay !

If you are a juror with a disability or a special need, you will be asked by HMCS to provide further information on the ‘Reply to Your Summons for Jury Service’. This information is then passed from the Jury Central Summoning Bureau to the court where you have been called for jury service so that arrangements to assist you whilst at court can be made in advance of jury service. It is important you provide all necessary information about your disability or special need in advance and any arrangements you need so the court can make reasonable adjustments. If it is not possible to make the necessary adjustments e.g the layout of a listed building then your jury service may be transferred to a court nearby where adjustments can be made to suit your needs.

This from the Guidance for summoning officers when considering deferral and excusal applications.

21. Applications for excusal on the grounds of a physical disability which would make jury service difficult to undertake should be considered sympathetically such applications should normally be considered without the necessity for a medical certificate to be produced. However, a certificate should be requested if the summoning officer feels that that one is necessary to support an application for excusal on the grounds of illness or physical disability (for example, where there is uncertainty as to the illness/ disability), or where one is required for an appeal against non-excusal.

Having diabetes is no reason to be excused Jury Service unless there are mitigating circumstances.
Contact the Court who issued the Jury Summons.

I would recommend you get in touch with Diabetes UK. Their helpline should know the answer. It's the kind of thing they do very well.
Hana

A lot may depend on how good you are at sitting for 3 hours at a time with your wits about you.

Problems I can foresee about having a type one on a jury are:

needs to pee frequently.
very prone to hypos especially lack of warning signs.
lack of mental clarity with high blood sugars.

All these things are related to swings in blood sugar. If you have good stable control you would be able to manage on a jury. The food in courts is cheap, high carb rubbish. You could say you need a good quality protein, fresh vegetable lunch and point out that your afternoons may not be very good if you don't get it.

I was faced with the same question 2 yrs ago. I emailed the enquiry office but their reply was not helpful. I then spoke to the Jury Officer at the court, who said it would be no problem as the judges rarely went on too long without a break for fear of jurors losing concentration. He suggested the following:

1) Make myself known to the Jury Officer on the first day.
2) When called to court, tell the usher I am diabetic, he would inform the judge.
3) If I needed to test or eat I should write down "need medical break", raise my hand to attract the Usher's attention and show him the note. The judge, having already been warned, would know I needed the break ASAP. He would then adjourn for a short break until I'd was able to concentrate again.

Would only be totally excused jury service if your condition was very unstable or had no hypo awareness, e.g liable to pass out without warning.

In the event I had no problems. All judges adhered to lunchbreak times closely and the cases I was on never went on more than about 1.5 hours without a break. We had to take all belongings into court, so I could've tested under the desk if necessary.

When not on a case, never order hot food outside the official lunch break time as that's just asking to be called away from hot food you've aready paid for, whether diabetic or not!

LittleSue said:

I then spoke to the Jury Officer at the court, who said it would be no problem as the judges rarely went on too long without a break for fear of jurors losing concentration.

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Indeed the longest time a judge will keep the court sitting without a break is 2 hours. The general thinking is that that is the longest a juror is likely to keep concentration in one go. It's also why courts keep short hours.

The judge should always accommodate any problems that a juror has where reasonable (disability discrimination applies to the courts as well). I was stuck on jury service for 8 weeks back in the late 80's. I also had a condition that required hospital attendance once a fortnight. For 4 weeks I turned up at the hospital with a court order requiring them to give me priority over any other patient. I was never more than half an hour late for the proceedings.

These were the days when everyone had the same 9:30 am or 2:00 pm appointment time regardless of when the hospital actually intended to see you.

IanS

IanS said:

Indeed the longest time a judge will keep the court sitting without a break is 2 hours. The general thinking is that that is the longest a juror is likely to keep concentration in one go. It's also why courts keep short hours.

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Pity the West Midlands Crown Courts haven't heard of that one Ian. Many a time I have spent sat for up to 3 hrs at a time kicking my heels, the jurors had to suffer the same way as well. Start at 10, then stop at 1pm. Par for the course where we are ! Maybe we Brummies are made of sterner stuff ? :lol:

Merry Christmas by the way.......

I did jury service last year, for weeks!

It wasn't a problem. I took my meter into the courtroom along with insulin, dextrose tablets and some non-crunchy snacks in case I needed something but didn't want to be loud! I told the usher at the beginning of the service and she said that if I needed to come out of court for any reason I just had to write a note. But I didn't need to come out at all.

Defintely take your own lunch/snacks as the food they offered was terrible. At the court I was in, if you didn't eat the food they provided you could claim the money back, so I ate my own healthy food and got paid for it :lol:

I've never been called for Jury Service, but if I were, I wouldn't be looking for an excuse not to do it! Admittedly more difficult if self employed etc, but jury service is very rarely longer than 2 weeks. The important aspect is that a wide range of people sit on juries, so that (a) defendant(s) is / are heard by 12 of their peers (England / Wales / Northern Ireland) / 15 on criminal trials in Scotland. I reckon my aunt who was juror while breastfeeding her first child had a tougher time than I would with T1D (she expressed milk and husband looked after baby).

copepod said:

I've never been called for Jury Service, but if I were, I wouldn't be looking for an excuse not to do it! Admittedly more difficult if self employed etc, but jury service is very rarely longer than 2 weeks.

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There is always the risk that you can get stuck on a long case. Although they do call for volunteers who are free to do long cases, if they don't get enough volunteers, then you are in the ballot. I have sat on an 8 week case, and a colleague of mine was away from work for over 3 months. :!:

IanS

If you can physically deal with it, then go for it.
It's an experience, and you're actually doing something that makes a difference on a day to day basis with the functioning of our country.
It's a good experience, okaay a lot of it is boring, but it's great to see how and why the courts work.

This is a bit off topic,
>>Indeed the longest time a judge will keep the court sitting without a break is 2 hours. The general thinking is that that is the longest a juror is likely to keep concentration in one go. It's also why courts keep short hours<<

A canon of the church of England , who is a friend of mine. keeps his sermons to 5 minutes, because he believes that no-one can concentrate properly for longer.
Hana

I did jury service, kept testing and was fine.
Unless you don't want to do it- don't let your diabetes affect you- it was an amazing experience and I'm so glad I did it