Case studies: Recorders

In the following case studies, solicitors write about their experience of becoming a judicial recorder:

• Judicial recorder Heather Baucher
• Judicial recorder Peggy Ray

Comments from judges

The following comments describe two solicitors’ experience of becoming a judge:

“I think solicitors have become more specialist and that narrows your field of work and then when you start to sit as a judge you have got to be available to do a much wider range than your practice. You are learning all the time as you face new situations. And you have to use your knowledge and intellectual ability and your knowledge keeps growing.”

“I knew nothing about immigration when I applied for it, because you can pick it up. I knew nothing about financial regulation when I started off, but actually what they’re looking for is a generalist, somebody who knows about evidence and procedure on the basis that if you’ve been doing it for seven years in whatever field. You’re probably intelligent enough to pick up the actual law, as long as you’ve got the procedure and the evidence under your belt, which you should do after seven years.”