Post by Golden_Boy™ on Dec 7, 2006 13:33:36 GMT -1
A DEAF housewife has gone to court because she claims she was not allowed to serve on a jury.
Mother-of-two Joan Clarke has mounted a landmark legal action in the High Court challenging her exclusion from jury service.
Ms Clarke, from Loughrea, Co Galway, claims she is entitled to be facilitated to serve on a jury with a sign-language interpreter, and the failure to allow her do so earlier this year breached her rights under the Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights Act.
The housewife says she wanted to perform "this important civic duty" on the same basis as everyone else.
Discrimination
She also felt she was being discriminated against because she is a deaf person and was being treated as inferior to a hearing person, she said in court papers.
The challenge - the first of its kind here - has been brought against the Galway County Registrar, the Courts Service, Ireland, and the Attorney General, with the Human Rights Commission as a notice party.
Justice John Quirke yesterday adjourned the case to January next to allow the defendants time to respond to the claims.
Ms Clarke, from Loughrea, Co Galway, is seeking an order quashing the decision of the Galway County Registrar and/or Courts Services on May 15, 2005, purportedly excusing her from jury service.
She claims she is entitled to serve as a juror under the Juries Act 1976, but if that Act precludes her from service then she contends it is both unconstitutional and incompatible with the equality and other provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003.
Ms Clarke said she was summoned for jury service at Galway's Circuit Criminal Court in mid-April last year.
However, on reading the jury summons, she noticed it contained a list of 'Persons Ineligible' that included a "person, who because of insufficient capacity to read, deafness, or permanent disability, is unfit to serve on a jury".
She raised the matter with the National Association for Deaf People, who contacted the Galway Circuit Court office. A court official indicated there was no problem as they had booked a sign-language interpeter. However, just days before she was due to attend for jury service, she was then told she would not be allowed serve.
Mother-of-two Joan Clarke has mounted a landmark legal action in the High Court challenging her exclusion from jury service.
Ms Clarke, from Loughrea, Co Galway, claims she is entitled to be facilitated to serve on a jury with a sign-language interpreter, and the failure to allow her do so earlier this year breached her rights under the Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights Act.
The housewife says she wanted to perform "this important civic duty" on the same basis as everyone else.
Discrimination
She also felt she was being discriminated against because she is a deaf person and was being treated as inferior to a hearing person, she said in court papers.
The challenge - the first of its kind here - has been brought against the Galway County Registrar, the Courts Service, Ireland, and the Attorney General, with the Human Rights Commission as a notice party.
Justice John Quirke yesterday adjourned the case to January next to allow the defendants time to respond to the claims.
Ms Clarke, from Loughrea, Co Galway, is seeking an order quashing the decision of the Galway County Registrar and/or Courts Services on May 15, 2005, purportedly excusing her from jury service.
She claims she is entitled to serve as a juror under the Juries Act 1976, but if that Act precludes her from service then she contends it is both unconstitutional and incompatible with the equality and other provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003.
Ms Clarke said she was summoned for jury service at Galway's Circuit Criminal Court in mid-April last year.
However, on reading the jury summons, she noticed it contained a list of 'Persons Ineligible' that included a "person, who because of insufficient capacity to read, deafness, or permanent disability, is unfit to serve on a jury".
She raised the matter with the National Association for Deaf People, who contacted the Galway Circuit Court office. A court official indicated there was no problem as they had booked a sign-language interpeter. However, just days before she was due to attend for jury service, she was then told she would not be allowed serve.
Source: Todays Irish Independent
Forever without exception. x
Bloody ridiculous. She's only interested in the money.
