Judge
Judges preside over court proceedings, hear the evidence and decide how the law applies to it.
- Median salary*
- $234,000
3.8%vs last year, before tax
- People employed
- 740
5.7%vs last year
- Projected growth
- +20.4%
to 2035
- AI exposure*
- Low
- 3 out of 10
- Average hours
- 50/wk
+10h vs all jobs
- Shortage status
- Not in shortage
national
- Judges hear evidence, rule on how a case is run and decide how the law applies to the facts before them.
- The job differs from a magistrate's, which handles the bulk of matters at the lower court level, and from a barrister's, which argues one side of a case.
- You come to it after years in practice: judges are appointed from experienced lawyers and judicial officers, not hired through an ordinary application process.
How much do judges earn?
The median full-time salary for a judge is $234,000 per annum, before tax, up $48,500 since 2018.
Judicial salaries are set by statute and adjusted by independent remuneration tribunals, so the court you sit in and the level of the appointment decide the figure, with federal and higher court roles at the top of the range. There is no overtime, bonus or performance payment to negotiate, and the reading and judgment writing come with the position. If you are weighing up an appointment, check the superannuation arrangements attached to that court and whether the term runs to a fixed date or to retirement age, because these differ between jurisdictions.
What does a judge do day to day?
The list below is what fills most weeks; the exact mix shifts with seniority and whatever stage the current work is at.
- Presiding over hearings and trials, ruling on procedure and evidence as issues arise
- Reading case files, submissions and the authorities the parties have cited, often the night before a hearing
- Deciding the facts of a matter and giving oral reasons in court
- Writing judgments that set out the findings, the law and the reasoning behind the decision
- Sentencing offenders and explaining the basis of the sentence in open court
What skills do judges need?
Employers look for legal research, regulatory and administrative law, backed by Court case management systems fluency and strong written communication.
Specialist skills
- Legal research
- Regulatory and administrative law
Software and tools
- Court case management systems
- Legal research databases (e.g., LexisNexis, Westlaw)
- E-filing platforms
- Video conferencing software
- Document management systems
General skills
- Written communication
- Attention to detail
- Problem solving
- Stakeholder management
Is the job growing?
About 740 people work as judges in Australia, and employment is projected to grow 20.4% over the decade to 2035. That's very strong growth. Few roles in Australia are expanding this fast, and it points to solid demand for years to come.
How do you become a judge?
Here's the path most judges take, step by step.
- 1Qualify and be admitted as a lawyer
A Bachelor of Laws or a Juris Doctor, then practical legal training and admission to the Supreme Court of a state or territory, plus a practising certificate. There is no separate judge qualification to work towards.
- 2Build a decade or more in practice
Appointment usually follows at least ten to fifteen years as a barrister or senior solicitor, running trials and developing a specialisation such as criminal, commercial or family law.
- 3Take a lower judicial or tribunal role first
Many judges serve as magistrates or tribunal members beforehand, which builds courtroom management and shows whether deciding matters suits you better than arguing them.
- 4Watch for expressions of interest
Attorney-general's departments advertise judicial vacancies and invite expressions of interest, though some appointments are made without a public process. Applications ask for details of your practice, judgments and referees.
- 5Appointment and commission
The governor or governor-general appoints on the advice of the executive, and you are commissioned to a set retirement age, commonly 70. A small number of appointments are for a fixed term instead.
Ready to apply as a judge?
Whether you're working toward becoming a judge or already are one and want a hand with the next step (sharpening your resume for ATS screening, tightening your cover letter, or knowing what you'll actually be asked at interview), here are examples grounded in this specific role, not generic templates.
What jobs can a judge move to?
We don't list lateral moves for judges: leaving means a full new qualification rather than a career move, and the realistic routes in are covered under how to become one.
Who works as a judge?
The typical judge is 60 years old; 63% are men, 92% work full-time, and full-timers average 50 hours a week.
- 60
- Median age
- 37%
- Female share
- 92%
- Full-time
- +10h
- vs all-jobs avg
What's it like being a judge?
Your week is mostly reading, because submissions and authorities arrive before a hearing and judgments get written after court rises, so the long hours continue away from the bench. In court the work is structured and formal, with counsel appearing before you and the room running to your directions, but the decisions are yours alone and there is nobody to pass them to. A sentence that sends someone to prison, or a ruling that ends a business, follows you home. If you enjoy working a legal principle against messy facts and defending your reasoning in writing, this is work that keeps its interest; if you need a team around you or a clear line between the job and home, the solitude and the volume of reading are the hardest adjustment.
What people like
- The decision is yours. Nobody overrules your call on the day and the reasoning is your own. For a lawyer who has spent years advocating for one side, deciding is a different kind of satisfaction.
- You work on the matters that were not settled. Cases that reach a judge have usually resisted negotiation, so the legal questions tend to be substantive and the arguments well prepared.
- The court list varies. A week can hold a commercial trial, a sentencing and an urgent application for an injunction, and each asks something different of you.
- Your reasons travel further than the case. A written judgment settles the dispute in front of you and guides how the law is applied in matters you will never see.
What people find hard
- The reading crowds out the rest of life. Judgment writing does not fit inside court hours, so evenings and weekends go to it, and the volume builds if you let it.
- You cannot talk a live matter over. A judge cannot discuss a pending case with colleagues, family or a former practice, which leaves the thinking and the doubt to you alone.
- Some decisions carry weight you keep. Criminal sentences, child protection matters and findings against individuals stay with the judge who made them, and not everyone wants that on their conscience.
- The advocacy stops. Barristers who take the bench give up the courtroom performances and public profile they built a career on, and the change is permanent.
Based on our synthesis of professional-body surveys and public accounts of the role, not first-person verified reviews.
Which industries employ judges?
Public Administration and Safety employs the largest share of judges.
Top employing industries
- 1Public Administration and Safety
Ranked by employment share; the source doesn't publish an exact percentage per industry.
| Bachelor degree | 64.2% | |
|---|---|---|
| Postgraduate | 27.8% | |
| Diploma / Advanced Diploma | 1.3% | |
| Year 12 or below | 1.3% | |
| Certificate III/IV | 1.2% |
Will AI replace judges?
Low exposure. Unlikely. AI will change some of the work around this job, not the job itself.
Court work has low exposure overall: transcription, case research and document review are already partly automated, and none of that touches the decision itself. A judge hears the parties, weighs the evidence and gives reasons, and an unhappy party appeals to another judge, not to a system. The useful thing to build while you are still in practice is speed at reading a file and writing reasons that hold up, because that is the part the tools cannot take on.
How a typical week splits
- Researching the law and checking precedent20% of the week
Databases already surface cases and flag how later courts have treated them, which speeds up the finding; working out which authority actually governs the matter is the slower part.
- Reading files, submissions and authorities30% of the week
Software can pull relevant passages and summarise a bundle, which shortens the search, but you still read the material closely enough to test what each side says about it.
- Writing judgments, reasons and sentencing remarks30% of the week
Drafting tools can tidy a sentence, but the findings, the law applied and the reasoning are the judge's own and are what an appeal examines.
- Running the courtroom20% of the week
Scheduling and transcription software handles the listing and the record, while hearing the parties, watching a witness give evidence and ruling on an objection happen live in the room.
How we work this out
We break each job into its main tasks, estimate the share of a typical week each one takes, and judge how far current AI and automation tools reach into it. The score out of 10 starts from the job's overall rating (low is 1 to 3, moderate 4 to 6, high 7 to 10) and the task split places it within that range. Source: Career Tips analysis of each role's main tasks.
Common questions about becoming a judge
Straight answers to the questions people ask most.
How much do judges earn?
Judges earn $234,000 per year before tax, and the court you sit in and the level of the appointment decide where that figure falls, with federal and higher court roles paying more than state lower courts. Salaries are set by statute and adjusted by remuneration tribunals, so there is nothing to negotiate; the practical differences to compare are superannuation terms and whether the appointment runs to retirement age or a fixed term.
How do you become a judge?
There is no course or exam that makes you a judge: you are appointed after years in legal practice, most often as a barrister or a senior solicitor, and frequently after serving as a magistrate or tribunal member. Admission as a lawyer and a practising certificate come first, then a decade or more of running your own cases and building a reputation for judgment.
Are judges in demand?
Judges are currently not in shortage, and employment is projected to grow 20.4% over the decade to 2035. With only a few hundred judges in the country, a handful of appointments moves the total, and openings come from retirements and decisions to fund new courts, so vacancies tend to be advertised on short notice rather than on a steady cycle.
Will AI replace judges?
No: transcription, document review and case research are already partly automated, but the decision itself is not, because a judge has to hear the parties, weigh the evidence and give reasons that can be tested on appeal. Spend your practice years learning to read a file quickly, spot the weak part of an argument and write reasons that survive review.
What is the difference between a magistrate and a judge?
Magistrates hear the bulk of criminal and civil matters in the lower courts, including summary offences and committal proceedings, while judges sit in the higher courts on indictable and more complex matters. Magistrates are also a common source of appointments to the bench, so the two roles sit on one career path.
What career moves can a judge make?
Judges are drawn from experienced barristers and from magistrates moving up from the lower courts, where the courtroom work overlaps closely and the formal appointment process is the main difference between the roles. After appointment, movement is generally sideways to a higher court or to presiding over a tribunal, and most judges stay in judicial work until retirement age.
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