Jury Duty

Does anyone have experience with Jury Duty? I was summoned and it was stressful on top of IBS and hypoglycemia. They said you cannot eat in the courtroom. Luckily this time I was excused, but now I feel all sickly, like I can't even do Jury Duty! I didn't want to fill out the medical excuse form because it said do you have a disability or mental disability and I didn't think it applied, but next time I'm going to bring it to my doctor. This whole thing was very jarring and I ended up feeling lows in the court room.

I served in an actual trial a while back. It only lasted a day and I don't recall ever having a BG issue in either the trial or deliberation. I did make sure to carry around any rescue glucose and I don't recall it ever being an issue. It wasn't like I was going to break out a cup of coffee and donuts to treat a low so I never worried about it.

Seems to me, though, that the medical excuse form is key to allow any consideration for your diabetes during a trial, if such a need arises.

I've never actually served on a jury. But the last time I was called to serve and got through the initial pre-screening, I did have to let the judge know that I was a type 1 diabetic. I explained to the judge that I would need to take breaks to test, eat, etc. I wasn't asked to serve, but I don't think my diabetes was the reason.

Personally, I would love to serve on a jury. I understand why they have the restrictions they have (no eating, no random breaks, etc), but they just aren't conducive to living with type 1 diabetes. Also, my random lows throughout the day could make it hard when on a jury. As it is, I have lows during the day that sometimes result in my "missing" whole hours at a time. I work a job where this isn't too much of an issue, as I'm able to work at my own pace and on my own schedule. But what would I do on a jury? If I lost an hour during which evidence was being presented, what would I do? Hate to say it, but based on my knowledge of how serving on a jury works, I don't know if I could do it unless special accommodations were made.

oh great..........I have jury duty in January. I 'm taking my meter and glucose tabs with me. I test anywhere I want. And will eat glucose tabs when I have to. They don't like it? Tough.

I would tell them "it's not food, it's medicine" if they gave me a hard time about it. I haven't been on a jury but attended a trial for work. They didn't fuss about meter or snacks. I'd like to do it as I found the whole process very interesting.

Personally, I haven't served or summoned to serve since a while before I was diagnosed. I think that it wouldn't be too much of an issue for me, but I would be afraid of serving because if I started to go low and got disoriented while an important piece of evidence was being presented, I would not be able to follow what was being presented and something like that could actually influence my decision on the outcome. Besides, I wouldn't want to be the center of attention with the rest of the jurors and have some jerk get annoyed at me for getting a low or misinterpreting the evidence due to my diabetes.

I had to go for 1 day earlier this month. Took snacks, meter, and insulin with me. The syringes were a problem at the door but the officers Sgt was also T1 and was very cool about it. He told me I was fine with everything I had and if I had any problems, where I could find him all day. I let the judge know I was T1 and he said if I was selected, just remind him once they released those who were not, and we would setup a signal I could give his assistant if I needed to step out, and we would just go into recess. He told me checking and eating in the courtroom wouldn't be a problem. Overall, they were very accommodating and just letting them know my situation was all it took to get the accommodations I needed.

Your Endo or Primary care physician should be able to to write you a note real fast in the office to take to the clerk upon check-in excusing you from this. I asked and was givin without any hassle at all, also, make sure that it goes in to your formal medical chart as this will come in handy being in "print" as well. Hope this helps. Cheers!