Good Questions to Ask a Judge
Questions for a group visiting a courthouse: a class, a scout troop, a civics trip, or anyone who has just watched twenty minutes of a hearing and been offered a few minutes with the judge afterwards. Nothing here needs legal training to ask or to follow. If you are interviewing a judge at length rather than visiting with a group, the questions to ask a judge set goes further into how the work is done.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What were you doing this morning before we came in?
Why ask it
Judges usually spend the hours before a session reading, and saying so surprises people who imagine the job is mostly the courtroom. It also gives the group a concrete picture to hang everything else on.
Who is everyone in this room, and what does each of them do?
Why ask it
A clerk, a court reporter, a bailiff and a lawyer are four different jobs that look similar from the public benches. Asking lets the judge introduce the room, which is usually the most useful five minutes of a visit.
What do the robe and the raised bench actually mean?
Why ask it
The answer is about the office rather than the person, and judges tend to enjoy explaining it. It also opens the question of why courtrooms are arranged the way they are.
How does a case end up in this courtroom rather than another one?
Why ask it
Assignment rules, subject matter and geography decide this, and none of it is obvious from outside. The answer explains why the same argument might be heard in one building and not another.
What happens to the notes the person at the front is typing?
Why ask it
The transcript is the official record and it matters later on appeal, which is a good way in to how the system checks itself. Court reporters are also happy to show their machine if you ask.
Do you decide today, or later?
Why ask it
Some rulings come from the bench in seconds and some take weeks of writing, and which is which is not obvious to a visitor. Ask what makes a decision one that has to be written down.
How much of a case do you read before anyone speaks?
Why ask it
Visitors assume the hearing is where the judge learns the case, when usually it is where the judge tests what has already been read. This reframes everything the group just watched.
What did you have to do to become a judge?
Why ask it
Appointment, election and other routes differ by place, and students almost never know which applies where they live. Ask what the judge was doing in the ten years before this job.
Did you always want this job?
Why ask it
Most judges did not, and the honest version of that answer is more useful to a fifteen-year-old than any careers talk. It also usually produces the best story of the visit.
What do people get wrong about court from watching it on television?
Why ask it
This is the question judges are most willing to answer at length, because the gap is enormous. Expect surprise, objections and dramatic confessions to come up.
Is it ever hard to keep your face still?
Why ask it
It is a light question that opens a serious one about how a judge is meant to appear to everyone in the room. Ask what happens when someone in court is very upset.
How do you try to be fair to someone you have taken a dislike to?
Why ask it
Judges have real methods for this and rarely get asked about them. The answer is a genuine lesson in how the job works, not a platitude, if you give them room to answer properly.
What happens if someone in the courtroom behaves badly?
Why ask it
Contempt, warnings and removal are the mechanisms, and the practical answer is usually far less dramatic than expected. Ask what a judge tries first.
What do you do when the law says one thing and it feels wrong?
Why ask it
This is the heart of what a judge does and does not get to choose, and it can be answered honestly without discussing any live case. Ask where a bad outcome is meant to get fixed if not here.
What happens if you get something wrong?
Why ask it
Appeals exist precisely because judges make mistakes, and hearing that said plainly by a judge lands better than reading it. Ask how often decisions are appealed in this court.
Do you remember your first day sitting up there?
Why ask it
Nervousness in a judge is not something a visiting group expects, and the memory is usually vivid. It is a good question to ask when the formal questions have run out.
What part of the job would surprise us most?
Why ask it
Open questions like this work well in a group because the judge picks something they actually want to say. Let the answer run rather than moving to the next question.
What should someone do if a jury summons arrives?
Why ask it
Most of the group will get one eventually, and this is the one piece of practical information a judge is glad to give. Ask what makes jury service go badly for people.
If we came back tomorrow, what would be different?
Why ask it
Court calendars vary enormously by day and by type of matter, and the answer explains that what the group saw was one slice. It also tells you when to come back if you want to see a trial.
Is there anything about your work you are not allowed to tell us about?
Why ask it
Asking this openly is better manners than blundering into it, and the answer teaches the group why the restrictions exist. Judges cannot discuss live cases, their deliberations, or anything that would look like prejudging a matter.
Visiting a courtroom with a group
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
What a judge cannot discuss
Pending and impending cases
Judicial conduct rules restrict public comment on matters before the court or likely to come before it. Do not ask about a case in the news, a case you are involved in, or how they would rule on a hypothetical that resembles one.
Your own legal problem
A judge cannot give you legal advice or discuss a matter you are a party to, and asking may create a conflict that affects your case. If you need advice, that is a question for a lawyer or a legal aid service.
Deliberations and colleagues
How a panel reached a decision, or what another judge did in a similar case, is not available to you. Ask about process in general terms instead, which they can usually describe freely.
Politics and appointments
Questions about parties, candidates or contested nominations put a judge in a difficult position. If you want to understand selection, ask how the process works in that jurisdiction rather than what they think of it.
What works in a group visit
- Questions about the room and the people in it, which the judge can answer by pointing.
- Questions about what the group has just watched, which turn a confusing twenty minutes into something they understood.
- Questions about the judge's own route into the job, which is the part students remember.
- One open question near the end, such as what would surprise us, so the judge can choose what to say.
- Anything you would be comfortable seeing quoted. Judges answer as though they might be, which is a reasonable filter for your own questions too.
Practical courtesies for a visit
- Use the form of address the court uses. If someone introduces them as Judge or Justice, follow that.
- Ask the clerk beforehand what is off limits, and tell the group, so nobody is refused in front of everyone.
- Watch a session before the questions if you can. Twenty minutes of observation produces better questions than any preparation sheet.
- Ask one question at a time and let the answer finish, and do not let the loudest person ask all of them.
- Write afterwards if a clerk arranged the visit. Thank the clerk too, since they did the scheduling and will remember whether you did.