Law360 Canada (July 21, 2026, 9:46 AM EDT) --

Steve Benmor

Canada’s federal judiciary is an important population whose day-to-day burdens have rarely been studied despite their institutional importance. For all the gravity of their role, we are only now uncovering how Canada’s judges are managing their mental health.

A report on the health and well-being of judges was released on July 9, 2026, by the Canadian Judicial Council and the Université de Sherbrooke. It surveyed 794 federally appointed judges and its findings paint a nuanced picture: judges report better mental health than lawyers, but not much better.

The raw date shows:

• 10 per cent of judges reported depressive symptoms
• 17 per cent of judges reported anxiety
• 28 per cent of judges reported psychological distress
• 50 per cent of judges reported a low sense of safety
• 52 per cent of judges report that they think about retiring early at least once a month
• 69 per cent of judges reported finding high meaning in their work (query about the other 31 per cent).

Like the same study on lawyers, judges are not immune to overwork, which correlates to mental health outcomes.

The study identified several contributing factors:

• Heavy caseloads
• High numbers of sitting days
• Complexity of cases
• Understaffed courts
• Limited administrative support
• Self-represented litigants
• Court filings overloaded with excessive/irrelevant evidence.

The federal government has a direct stake in these findings, not merely a passing interest. Every day, thousands of Canadians walk into courtrooms at the most precarious moments of their lives — facing loss of custody, liberty, immigration status or safety — and they do so trusting that the person deciding their fate is clear-headed, present and well.

That trust is not abstract. It is the foundation the entire justice system rests on. If nearly half of federally appointed judges are showing signs of burnout, and a majority of those are contemplating early retirement, that is not a private wellness issue confined to the judiciary — it is a structural risk to the quality and consistency of justice itself.

Ottawa cannot treat judicial well-being as separate from judicial performance. Fatigue, chronic overwork and a diminished sense of safety don’t stay contained to a judge’s personal life; they shape how evidence is weighed, how patience holds up during a difficult hearing, and how much attention a case receives before a ruling is handed down.

A litigant standing before an exhausted or unfit judge is entitled to the same fairness as one who appears before an attentive one, but the data suggests that guarantee is increasingly strained. Understanding what drains judges — heavy caseloads, unsupported self-represented litigants, uneven security across courts — isn’t an indulgence; it’s a diagnostic tool for protecting the people the system is meant to serve.

The government’s ability to act is also uniquely direct here, since many of the pressures identified in the report trace back to legislative and funding choices it controls. Court staffing levels, the pace at which sitting days accumulate and the rigid 15-year threshold in the Judges Act before a judge can shift to part-time work are not immovable facts of judicial life — they are policy decisions that can be revisited.

Treating this report as a serious call to action, rather than an internal HR matter for the judiciary to manage on its own, would signal that the government understands judicial health as inseparable from public confidence in the courts, the reliance on the rule of law and the proper operation of our democracy.

Canadians deserve more than the assumption that the person holding their future in their hands is doing fine; they deserve a system built to make sure that’s actually true.

Steve Benmor, B.Sc., LLB, LLM (family law), C.S., is the founder and principal lawyer of Benmor Family Law Group, a boutique matrimonial law firm in downtown Toronto. He is a certified specialist in family law and was admitted as a fellow to the prestigious International Academy of Family Lawyers. He is regularly retained as a divorce mediator, arbitrator and parenting coordinator. As a divorce mediator, he uses his 30 years of in-depth knowledge of family law, courtroom experience and expert problem-solving skills in divorce mediation to help spouses reach fair, fast and co-operative divorce settlements without the financial losses, emotional costs and lengthy delays from divorce court. Read his resumé here. He can be reached at steve@benmor.com.

The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the author’s firm, its clients, Law360 Canada, LexisNexis Canada or any of its or their respective affiliates. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.

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