Judges speak through their judgments — but a judgment rarely tells you how a judge reasons, doubts and decides. In this series, The Honourable will sit down with sitting and retired members of the judiciary, always within the proper limits of judicial ethics: no comment on pending cases, no politics, and every transcript approved by the interviewee before publication.

While our first interview is being arranged, here is the question bank every conversation will draw from. It is published deliberately: our readers deserve to know what we ask, and our interviewees deserve to know there will be no ambush. Readers are warmly invited to propose their own questions through the contact page.
36. At the end of your service, how would you wish your work to be remembered — in one sentence?

The road to the Bench

17. What first drew you to the law — and when did you know the Bench, rather than the Bar, was your calling?
18. Which teacher, senior or judge most shaped the lawyer you became?
19. What did your years in practice teach you that no book could?

The craft of judging

20. Walk us through your working day, from cause list to judgment writing.
21. How do you prepare for a heavy list — and how do you keep every litigant feeling heard on a crowded day?
22. What makes written advocacy persuasive to you, and what makes it fail?
23. What is the most common mistake young advocates make in your courtroom?
24. How do you write a judgment — longhand or keyboard, in one sitting or many, and how do you know when it is finished?

The conscience of the office

25. How do you approach a case where the letter of the law and your sense of justice pull in different directions?
26. Have you ever changed your mind during a hearing because of an advocate’s argument? What did it?
27. How should a judge respond to public criticism of a decision — and how do you personally carry the weight of a hard sentence?
28. What does judicial independence require in daily practice, beyond what the Constitution guarantees on paper?

The institution

29. If you could change one thing about court administration tomorrow, what would it be?
30. What is the honest answer to case backlog — more judges, better procedure, technology, or something harder?
31. What role should technology, including artificial intelligence, play in the courtroom of the next decade — and where must it stop?
32. What did the profession get right in your generation that it must not lose in the next?

The person behind the robe

33. What do you read that has nothing to do with the law?
34. What does a judge do to remain an ordinary, reachable human being?
35. What would you say to a law student who dreams of judicial office?