Judicial perceptions on working time

Judicial systems across different jurisdictions and regions of the world have, in recent years, been subject to judicial reforms that have reconfigured the way judges work. Although they are not considered to be typical workers and studies on judges' working conditions are not very common, the few studies that do exist point to widespread dissatisfaction among judges with their working time, which is characterized by a fast pace of work and permanent work outside of conventional working hours, a result of the high volume of cases and the need to meet procedural deadlines. This article aims to look at working time quality and intensity of judges based on the perceptions of Portuguese judges working in first instance courts, in general and specialised courts, collected through a survey. The results point to differences in the perceptions of working intensity and quality between judges from general and specialised courts, as well as individual sociodemographic characteristics, such as gender, age and years of service.