Jury duty while on sick leave

LegacyUser

I have been on sick leave for several months dealing with severe mental health issues. I am making good progress with my recovery, and my doctors expect that I will be able to return to work early in the new year. (I feel ready to go back now, but they'd rather I wait until then.)

I have just received a summons to attend as juror at the Criminal Courts of Justice in early December. I am actually very interested in the courts and the Irish legal system, and would be interested in doing this.

I have two issues - am I legally permitted to serve as a juror while on sick leave and receiving illness benefit? And secondly, if my employers were to find out, could it be grounds for disciplinary action?

duploelabs

I would wager that if they did find out that if you're well enough to sit on a jury then you're well enough to come in to work.

seamus

Short answer, yes.

Time spent in jury service is for all intents and purposes time spent "at work" (since your employer is required to pay you during it). If you attend and are not called for a jury, you are required to return to work for the rest of that day.

This is probably a no-goer unless the nature of your sick leave is very specific and doesn't prevent you from attending at jury service - e.g. you can't do heavy lifting and your employer has told you there's nothing else for you to do until you recover.

You can do the following:

- Ask your employer if they would be OK with you attending jury service. I suspect not, since if you're well enough to do that, you're well enough to work. So play that one by ear.

- Present your sick cert to the registrar and ask to be excused. On the off-chance that they refuse to excuse you, then you're pretty much in the clear.

- Go back to work and then you're free to attend jury service.

mahoganygas

I could be wrong but I think persons who suffer with mental illness are ineligible to sit on jury.
Perhaps somebody could clarify this?

While I'm sure that you're more than capable to sit on jury, I wouldn't be surprised if a solicitor tried to get a case re-tried based on an 'unfit' juror.

I'm interested in the legal system myself, and would love to sit on jury for the experience. But I would be reluctant if it meant putting the case at risk.

Perhaps somebody on Legal Discussion could clarify for you.

Congratulations on your recovery and best of luck with returning to work.

nuckeythompson

You are not a fit person to sit on a jury with a mental illness. Advise the court clerk on the morning and you will be excused and rightly so . If someone is taking medication for depression for example you will be excused , and rightly so.

seamus

mahoganygas wrote: »

I could be wrong but I think persons who suffer with mental illness are ineligible to sit on jury.
Perhaps somebody could clarify this?

Correct, I actually missed this in the OP.

If you are regularly attending a doctor for mental illness, you are ineligible due in to incapability.

That's pretty broad, I'm sure someone who's been on stress leave is probably fine, but someone with bipolar disorder probably not.

nuckeythompson

mahoganygas wrote:

While I'm sure that you're more than capable to sit on jury, I wouldn't be surprised if a solicitor tried to get a case re-tried based on an 'unfit' juror.

Spot on, might even summon data from boards arfter reading this

_Brian

As a manager iid take a dim view of this. As a previous poster said, if your fit for jury duty then you should he ready for work.

Get a cert from your doctor and see if it will excuse you from jury duty.

If it does not then inform your work that you have been called and they they won't accept the cert to excuse you.

At least you've kept them informed of any issues that could be a problem down the road.

As a manager there is nothing more infuriating than finding out an employee is taking the piss in sick leave. It's a personal peeve of mine and without exception it's a written warning offence in my eyes. With one case getting a final written warning for long term absence and doing odd jobs while off.