I attended at a Magistrates Court today where my Client had a diabetic fit. Whilst I explained to my Client the nature of the case against her and what to expect procedurally in Court they looked to the ceiling and did not look down. At first I thought that I was simply boring the Client but then their friend quickly grabbed the Client and took control of the situation. This all took place as the Client's hearing was called in to Court. The Court was very sympathetic about what was happening and allowed me to deal with the hearing in the Clients absence.
This situation could have been a lot worse as the Clients friend dealt with the situation as the Court staff seemed to be unable to decide who was their First Aider and they were unable to locate the person they thought was likely to be the first aider!
I do remember and incident when I was involved in a trial about a year ago. I was in a Youth Court and a witness for the Crown had just given their evidence-in-chief. I was aware that the witness was deemed 'vulnerable' and that she had epilepsy. I was being as pleasant as I could in cross examination and as I was looking down at my notes I heard a noise. This noise was in fact the witness keeling over in the witness box and having a fit. It was rather unfortunate that the witness box was small and made out of wood.
Todays Client was very apologetic about her fit. The Client did say that the stress of Court is likely to have contributed in bringing the fit on, so it looks like the trial will be fun!?
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