How Do I Address the Judge?
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How you address the judge depends on which court you are in. Each court has a particular honourific that should be used when addressing the judge, and the judge is properly addressed by that honourific, not as "sir", "ma'am" or something else.
Judges of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court are addressed as My Lord or My Lady, or Your Lordship or Your Ladyship depending on the grammatical context.
Masters and registrars of the Supreme Court are addressed as Your Honour. Provincial Court judges are also called Your Honour.
It used to be the case that justices of the peace were properly referred to as Your Worship, but this practice is fading somewhat, and it is now acceptable to refer to them as Your Honour.
| This information applies to British Columbia, Canada. Last reviewed for legal accuracy by JP Boyd, March 24, 2013. |
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JP Boyd on Family Law © John-Paul Boyd and Courthouse Libraries BC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada Licence.
