UPDATED AND VERY UPSET - Summons for Jury Service
 

Hi.i wondered if anyone knew anything about being summoned for jury service in the UK and having mental health problems?

I have just been summoned and i wonder if someone can help me work this out.Their leaflet says the following:

BOX B

You are not qualified for jury service if:

You currently have, or have had in the past, a mental illness, psychotic disorder, mental handicap or severe mental handicap, and because of that condition:

You are resident in a hospital or other similar institution

OR

You regularly attend for treatment by a medical practitioner.

The form they then have their questions on which i have to complete says 'Please read the list in Box B in the booklet. Do you have a mental disorder or lack mental capacity to serve as a juror as described in this list?' And then i have to tick yes or no.

I am under the care of a Community Psychiatric Nurse in the community currently and i see her for an hour once every 2 - 3 weeks. Does that mean im excluded? Does a CPN count as a medical practitioner to them do we think or not?

i dont know.i wondered what everyone thought.i do not have a psycharist by the way.My only contact with the mental health team is currently via my nurse.

i would really like to do this jury service as i have always been interested in working for the courts, police and it would give me an insight though with my mental health how it is i am beginning to think i have no hope of these dreams now anyway.That is destroying me but i know it is my fault.

Anyway i dont know what to put on this form.Please someone help me??i have emailled them to ask whether a CPN excludes me or not but i wonder if anyone here knew anything or had any opinion???

Thanks!

Yeah thanks.i may well do that.Was thinking of it.But will wait and see if i get an email back from the jury people first really.Dont really want to bother my CPN again.Made rather a fool of myself with her yesterday.Feel bad and upset about it so wont contact her unless i need to but yes your right it is a good suggestion and i will do it if i cant find the answer.Thank you.

i would either speak to your nurse or your dr cos they will have more information on whether you will or wont be able to do it

x

Oh no i will fight my feelings and speak to her eventually.Well i darn well hope so anyway!!Sorry i didnt make things very clear.But what i meant was i just dont want to contact her again right now.i made of a fool of myself cos i contacted her rather desperately after our session yesterday.i feel a bit bad about it and im rather sure [understandably] she wasnt very impressed either.i couldnt keep my feelings under control but i really should not have contacted her so soon after.i have just been in a rather desperate and confused state recently and was very much so when i texted after our session.i just hope i didnt upset her.I probably shouldnt have contacted her especially so soon after.i just done want to bug her or seem like i am right now but yes i will speak to her if i need to.Thanks.

PS Thanks for the suggestion of the doctor also L'il Esky!

i expected this would be the answer from them and i understand it but am very upset.

They say the summons has to be withdrawn.i am not eligible for jury services in the circumstances and while i have a Community Psychiatric Nurse looking after me.

Want to hurt myself more now.

im a bad person.

i just want to die.

This shows so many things.

*cuddles*

Hun, I think it depends very much on the case/s you would be on jury duty for. Some can take a very long time and can be very upsetting and stressful and they are only taking your personal circumstances into account. They don't want to make you worse by putting you through jury duty.
My dad was a reporter for the local jury proceedings and has said that some cases can be extreamly upsetting to hear, and can be very stressful to go through.

Please don't take this as a personal rejection hun, it is purely done to keep you safe and in your best interests.

Stay safe hun
Xxxx

I agree with Tormented. They are not saying you lack the ability or that you will never be able to work in the field. What they are doing is recognising that they have a duty to protect your health and that court cases can be stressful and distressing. Because of the way jury service works, like calling random adults to stand, they haven't got time to do health clearance checks on every juror they have as they would if you were going into the profession long term. Therefore they can't judge it on a case by case basis as they would if you were being employed.
It is for your safety, for the safety of the people being tried. Please do not feel like a failure over this. Like the others have said, it is merely looking at your best interests and protection
xxx

i understand it is for my own protection and for those being tried and i am grateful for that.

However i just feel that i must be less of a person becuse of what has happened.

And also feel bad cos i have not been trusted to do it.

What does that say about me?About me as a person?

i dont feel like keeping safe right now.

I am doing my best.Whether people believe it or not.

As for who is eligible for jury service it seems from the list and information i was given by the Jury Summoning Bureau that people who have been convicted in the past few years, been on probation, not lived in the UK for five years continuously may not do it and also people with a mental disorder.

My understanding about people having certain jobs being effected is mainly that vets and doctors and various others etc can ask to be excused but they are not excluded as such.

i see what people are saying but i really do not need what has happened right now.

i really dont need to have this to have to deal with right now.Its really bad timing.

Thank you all for your support.

Why would you wanna be in some kinda jury and court anyway? Better study Law School and become a big lawyer.

Marte

I got a form 6 months ago to say i was summoned for Jury Service.
You should have seen the state i got in over it! Horrendous panic attacks..
I just ticked the box that said i didn't qualify due to my mental health problems.
They tend to not accept people with mental health problems, i think because some of the cases can be quite alarming/distressing.
I think as well it depends on the severity of your mental health problems to whether or not they'd accept.
(I wasn't in therapy, nor did i have a psychiatrist. I was however under my GP and on various meds, which meant i was exempt from attending.)

I do know however that if you do say you can go, you have to go everyday for 2 (i think it's 2) weeks, and you can get into a LOT of trouble if you don't attend for one day. So if for instance you were having a bad day (feeling down/unable to travel etc), you'd have to go regardless. If you read the leaflet it does state that you can get into trouble with the law for saying you will attend, but don't attend. (Not saying you won't! Just rambling..lol!)

I don't want to crush your dreams as i feel horrid for doing so. However, there is nothing stopping you from doing Jury Service in a few years time.
I guess it all depends on how badly you want to do it, and if you feel you will beable to attend on a daily basis.

Thanks Dramatic.Doesnt really matter now though as they have already said they wont accept me cos of my mental state and i have sent the form back appropriately but thanks for sharing your experiences as this was much appreciated!At least i know maybe im not the only one here! They are going to withdraw their summons in the circumstances.

Maybey these people have to review their procedures! The fact that uv been upset by this perhaps u should write to your elected representative, so that these procedures can be reviewed and not cos the same distress to anyone else

Really sorry that uv had to go through this,
take care
Craig

i see their point!im a bit calmer now though not having a great day as one of my friends friends has just died and that is a bit upsetting for me firstly cos i know how much he meant to her and secondly cos though i had never met him i had spoke to him a few times and she talked about him a lot so i kind of felt like i knew him in an odd way if you see what i mean.

i do see their point on the jury thing as i say.i have to look at their side too.It did upset me but then in many ways a lot of people would say perhaps i only have myself to blame for the state of my mental health anyway so i dunno.

It just felt a bit like the law says i can have sex if i want, i can vote if i want, i can work part time [which i do - four hours a day Mon to Fri] and i can pay my taxes.....but i cant be on a jury!!!

But i do see what they are saying and people have made some good points here.

i dont think the timing of their summons helped though [no ones fault i know] as i was already feeling very vulnerable and when im like that and then something like this happens i just take it so much worse, so much harder if anyone knows what i mean.

But thanks everybody.

Hey I'm so sorry about your friends friend and that this is such bad timing. Try not to think of it as anything personal on you or your character, it's not that they don't trust you, they wouldn't have asked you in the first place if they didn't, it's just as everyone else said that it could be very distressing and stuff. Maybe at some point in the future you could do it then, don't give up on your dream.

Thank you but im giving up on life right now so my dreams do seem rather distant.im just so emotionally drained.

As you might gather from the time of the post that im in the UK and posting at gone 1 in the morning that i do not sleep very well at all and as with a lot of nights recently i just sit here in the early hours of the morning feeling and being increasingly suicidal.

Sorry i just needed to get all that out.Thanks.

*hug* you're a great person in all reality.

Thanks but i think not.i havent been awake a lot of today until now.i assume thats either cos my sleeping pattern or cos of the amount of tablets i have been taking again.As you will know from my thread earlier i was also late for work in the week on Tuesday cos of something like this.Well the same also happened Thursday or Friday.i dont remember which.i dont usually sleep this much and my world is falling down around me.