Deaf woman in landmark legal battle to lift jury ban
Joan Clarke, a former factory worker from Galway who has been deaf since birth, will claim she is entitled to serve on a jury by means of a sign-language interpreter.
Ms Clarke, who wants to perform "this important civic duty", is seeking to have a decision to exclude her from jury service set aside, claiming that the blanket ban on deaf people carrying out jury duty is a breach of her rights under the Constitution and the European Convention of Human Rights.
The High Court judicial review action, the first of its kind, gets under way next week amid mounting criticism of Ireland's outdated Juries Act and less than a week after Justice Minister Dermot Ahern approved a proposal to abolish the upper age limit for jury service.
The new provision will allow pensioners up to the age of 70 to serve on juries, and will abolish the current age limit of 65 years. People aged between 65 and 70 will, however, be excused from jury service if they do not wish to serve.
The "deaf juror" case 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.
Ms Clarke, a homemaker from Ashlawn, Loughrea, Co Galway, is seeking in her judicial review proceedings an order quashing the decision of the Galway County Registrar and/or Courts Service of May 15, 2006, purportedly excusing her from jury service, apparently on grounds of her deafness.
Eligibility
She is also seeking declarations that any decision on her eligibility for jury service is for the judicial branch of government to make. 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.
The challenge is the first of its kind to be brought here. Similar challenges have been allowed in America but have been rejected in the United Kingdom.
Ms Clarke, a former factory worker, has been deaf since birth. Her husband is also deaf and they have two hearing children. She worked in a factory for 19 years until it closed down and she says she has a lot of experience interacting with hearing persons.
She says she is proficient at lip-reading and is fluent in Irish sign language. She is completing a course in Irish sign language with a view to becoming a sign-language teacher.
The case is being supported by the Free legal Advice Centres (FLAC) in Dublin, which says the abolition of the upper age limit should be accompanied by moves to remove all discrimination from the Juries Act.
Those with reading difficulties, suffering from blindness or deafness or other "permanent infirmity" are still deemed "incapable" and "unfit" to serve on a jury.
Anyone suffering from a mental illness or disability who regularly attends their doctor for treatment is also considered incapable of serving under the 32-year-old law.
Analysis: Page 25
- Dearbhail McDonald Legal Editor
