25+ Pros and Cons of Being a Judge (Explained)

A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges.

He hears all the witnesses and evidence presented by the advocates of the case, assesses the credibility and arguments of the parties, and then issues a ruling in the case based on his interpretation of the law and his own personal judgment.

Advantages of being a Judge	Disadvantages of being a Judge
Excellent Remunerations	Plenty of paperwork
Personal and Professional Development	People may insult
Exciting career option	Mental problems common
High standing in society	Workload
Not to work on weekends or holidays	Relinquishing Other Activities
Decent work-life balance	Can destroy lives with wrong decisions
Have many assistants	Can crack under the pressure
Do not have to work outdoors	Long years of education and practice
Job security

Advantages of being a Judge

Excellent Remunerations

Judges enjoy an attractive salary plus benefits. His salary is higher than the average received by others in legal careers such as attorneys and court clerks.

Judges often get a life and health insurance, pension, and retirement plans as well as vacation and sick leave compensation.

Personal and Professional Development

The career of a judge is professionally and intellectually challenging. They engage in a wide range of research from which they gain a lot of knowledge. They also gain skills in communication and critical thinking due to the nature of their work.

It also provides a sense of civic honor as judges defend human rights and promote justice in society.

Exciting career option

The benefit of working as a judge is that one will probably never get bored. As one will meet many different people and work on numerous different cases throughout their career, time will just fly.

There will always be something unexpected and the workday will be over far sooner than expected.

High standing in society

Judges enjoy a high standing in society. They are even on more level than doctors regarding social status and are highly appreciated in society.

Therefore judges are quite important for a working society and many people will know that and greatly appreciate their work.

Not to work on weekends or holidays

Judges often have a pretty standard workweek. In routine, they work 9 to 5 and come home rather early.

They will not have to work on weekends and holidays and can really enjoy plenty of leisure. They will instead be able to make nice trips or just enjoy their leisure in the garden.

Decent work-life balance

Mostly one will have a pretty decent work-life balance as a judge. Their schedule is fixed. Every judge decides the scheduling and activities of their respective court. If required they can postpone the case and allocate a suitable date.

Have many assistants

A judge has many people around him who can do rather unpleasant tasks for them. One will often be at the top of the pyramid and can delegate work they do not like to other people. One also gets support for various tasks in their professional life as a judge and can really focus on what matters.

Judges can order police, military, or judicial officials to execute searches, arrests, imprisonments, garnishments, detrainment, seizures, deportations, and similar actions.

Do not have to work outdoors

As a judge, one can work indoors in a rather cozy environment, protected from the elements and one will have heating and air conditioning to make their working conditions even more convenient.

Job security

Judges benefit from pretty high job security. In most cases, judges cannot be fired unless they make really big mistakes or even make wrong judgments intentionally.

It means that though many lawyers and also many other people have to fear losing their jobs in financial crisis situations, one will often be pretty safe as a judge and do not have to worry about being fired that much.

Disadvantages of being a Judge

Plenty of paperwork

Judges have to do plenty of this paperwork by him and they spend many hours reading documents so that they really get a grip on what happened in each individual case in order to make a proper judgment regarding a fair punishment.

They must be able to research and process extensive lengths of documents, witness testimonies, and other case material, understand complex cases and possess a thorough understanding of the law and legal procedure, which requires excellent skills in logical reasoning, analysis, and decision-making.

Excellent writing skill is also a necessity, given the finality and authority of the documents written.

People may insult

People who judge sent to jail or had to pay huge fines will also not be happy about their judgment at all. Though some people will stay calm and will quietly accept their destiny, most will just not stay cool and some of them will even insult the judge.

Mental problems common

Because of the high levels of pressure and responsibility that come along with a career as a judge, many judges also suffer from mental problems like depression. It is just the price that many of them have to pay for a demanding career.

Workload

They have myriad responsibilities inside and outside the courtroom. Inside the courtroom, a judge spends long periods of time presiding over trials and making decisions.

Outside the courtroom, he is engaged in administrative works such as undertaking research, writing legal opinions, reading lawyer’s briefs.

The ultimate task of a judge is to settle a legal dispute in a final and publicly lawful manner in agreement with substantial partialities. They exercise significant governmental power. Thus there are many responsibilities on the judge, which can give great stress to the work.

Relinquishing Other Activities

They are usually required to refrain from engaging in other business interests. It is to ensure that the judge remains fair and non-committal to business partners or political allies.

While this prevents a conflict of interest, it invariably limits the judge in what he can or cannot participate in.

Can destroy lives with wrong decisions

A problem being a judge is that one can potentially destroy the lives of many people with wrong decisions. Nobody is perfect and one will make mistakes sooner or later in their career. Mistakes by one can send people to jail for a pretty long time.

Can crack under the pressure

Being a judge implies plenty of pressure. Many people will not be happy with their decision and will try to change it, no matter what.

One will sometimes be entirely sure whether someone is really guilty or not and these high levels of uncertainty can really break one in the long run.

Long years of education and practice

To become a judge, one needs many years of education. One has to attend law school for an extensive period of time. Moreover one also needs plenty of practical experience. Most judges have worked as lawyers for an extended period of time.