Can a judge get promoted / demoted / dismissed?
Judges can be and are ‘promoted’ to higher courts. A judge sitting in the High Court or the House of Lords will probably have started life as a solicitor or barrister, and then become a recorder (a fee-paid judge who still works in their chosen profession for at least some of the time). They are then able to apply to become a salaried, or full-time, member of the judiciary in a number of jurisdictions. On occasions, judges are promoted through the courts, but it is also possible for a barrister or solicitor who has sat in a fee-paid, or part-time, judicial capacity to apply to sit straight in the High Court. The most senior judges will almost certainly have sat at High Court level before being promoted. Judges can also be dismissed. The most senior judges – the Heads of Division, Law Lords, Lords Justices of Appeal and High Court judges – can only be removed by The Queen after an address from both Houses of Parliament, although this has never happened. Other judicial office holders can
