Jury Service as an autistic adult

I did Jury Service before I was diagnosed. After the briefing on the first day I was called for a case which lasted just over two weeks and I found it an interesting experience. Other people I know though went every day for a fortnight sat around for two or three hours then told to go home each day and never got called for a case. They do give people the opportunity to be excused if it is a long case.

I guess you need to think what you might find difficult. 

Being called for jury service (Scotland) last year was the thing that triggered my breakdown and resulted in me moving back in with my mum for almost a year. I found the whole process extremely stressful, despite it only lasting for three days and never actually needing to go into a court session. At the time I was not aware of my autism, and didn't feel that being anxious about the process was enough of a reason to get a GP letter for an excusal. I called up a couple of days before and explained that I might have a panic attack in court and would that be ok, but they said they couldn't do anything without the GP letter so I just had to go through with it. 

It was a massive disruption to my routine, I didn't know til the morning of if I would be needed, I was stuck in a room with a bunch of strangers, we'd constantly be told to go away and come back in a few hours, then told eventually that we weren't needed that day. The process to recover lost earnings (I'm self employed) was so complicated that I never got the money back and it burnt me out so much that I couldn't live in my flat without help for daily tasks.

Get the excusal letter from your GP. 

I have recently been selected for jury duty in Scotland. I emailed the clerk of the court to tell them my diagnosis and to mention some of my characteristics and asking what to do. The response was pretty pathetic telling me to get a doctors letter if I want to be excused. I do not want to go to the hassle of trying to get a GP appointment to get a letter. I found this statement from the Scottish Parliament in regard to autism and the courts. "if any potential juror has autism that is likely to make it difficult to function as a juror, he or she may apply to the clerk of court for excusal."

Guess I will wait until I am selected and then report to the court officer.

Hi and welcome to the community!

I don't have any personal experience of this, so can't advise from that perspective. 

But I did have a look through some previous posts on this forum and found this comment from four years ago by NAS71730, which I thought you might find helpful, because it directly addresses your specific concern:

"I work in the courts as an usher and recently supported a juror with autism through a trial they had been selected for. They hadn't mentioned it on the form you are given that covers both loss of earnings and any health issues that may affect you during jury service, I only found out when they disclosed it to me after having a panic attack.

So my top tip would be to always mention it on that form, to the jury manager and to the usher who is assisting on the trial once you've been selected. Your well-being throughout your service is our priority :) I recognise that the justice system as it currently stands is not totally accessible for all but HMCTS are bringing out new resources soon that will go to all courts in England and Wales to help staff to better support service users with autism, and where I'm based the team are working hard to implement procedures as soon as we can!"

From: https://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/7928/jury-duty

If you like, you could also search for other past discussions on jury duty via the forum's search tool.

I hope this is helpful! :) 

I think it’s important to be honest. They are asking these questions for your benefit as well as theirs - and presumably with good reason based on experience. You might not necessarily be ‘missing out’ the experience might well be quite dull or quite distressing - it’s impossible to know at this point. But I do think you need to be honest.