"I have felt I had no idea which way the jury would go," he says. "Since being here I think juries get it right. I reckon juries now are way more intelligent. It's a natural progression, people are more educated." Ever wondered what you'd ask a judge if you had the chance? Melbourne's major courts will hold an open day on Saturday, as part of Law Week, to give the public a chance to better understand the roles of the judiciary. Amid a period of great scrutiny on judges and the sentences they impose, The Age sat down this week to ask some curly ones, aided by some questions from readers.

Have you ever bumped into anyone you've sentenced? Judge Sexton: It was out in the country, a person who was attending the service station while I was out on holidays. I was so sure it was a person I had given a suspended sentence to. I hid in the car. I had my partner do the refuelling and paying. Judge Wraight: I sometimes wonder what it would be like to meet someone you've sentenced, years later, to see if anything worked. In the context of a prison sentence, to see if they moved on or improved. Is it difficult to switch off your emotions to remain impartial? Judge Sexton: It becomes part of you, that's just the job. One of the things I learnt early on is that at any time, particularly if there's a jury, someone will be looking at the judge. So I'm really conscious of that, not to give any expressions that might be misinterpreted. You just go to scratch your cheek and you see someone in the jury go 'Ooh, is that a signal from the judge?' [Impartiality] just becomes second nature.

What's the most misunderstood aspect of your job? Judge Wraight: We get accused of being out of touch. It's more the opposite. You see everything from corporate fraud to the most horrific, violent sexual offending. You don't just hear the prosecutor read the allegation. You hear everything about the victim and everything about their family and everything about the accused and his family and his traumas. We're just human like everyone else and no better than someone else, but I think in some ways we're more in touch. The County Court. Credit:Vince Caligiuri What do you do in the moments before you sentence someone? Judge Wraight: If you're walking out to sentence someone for culpable driving, inevitably they attract a packed court room. If it's a young person there'll be an enormous amount of people. I get very nervous still, like that first day in court, because you have to address the victim's family and that can be quite emotional, even for a judge, that what you're doing can't ever bring their family member back.

And in the moments afterwards? Judge Sexton: The back of the court area is small, there's a desk and a chair but basically it's the liftwell. I come out and I just take deep breaths and look out the window and see that the world is still going on out there. That's what I do. If it's a particularly hard sentence I take lots of deep breaths. On your way back to chambers and you see someone you often feel the need to say I've just done this and that. Judge Wraight: I sometimes wait for one of my staff to come out and I'll ask if everyone in court is OK. How do you feel if your sentence is appealed? Judge Wraight: You get this feeling of dread when you get the email that your sentence is being appealed ... I've only had one come back from the Court of Appeal where the Crown [prosecutors] appealed my sentence as being inadequate. But when you read it you get a bit defensive and think, well, they just fiddled with it a bit. Sometimes you get defensive because you think it's just three people [appeals judges] coming to a different view.

Judge Sexton: It happens to everyone and eventually you'll have a case where the sentence is overturned and it's sent back for retrial. It has an impact on you because we don't come to work with the idea that we're going to make mistakes. We come to work with the pressure on to not make mistakes. Have you ever thought later that you might have made a different decision? Judge Sexton: Sometimes I do look back at old sentences and think 'Gee, I was tough then' or 'Gee, I was lenient then'. It's not a change in community standards, it's me coming fresh to that set of facts and saying I would have looked at it differently. I don't know why that is. Have you ever witnessed a jury decision you were uncomfortable with? Judge Sexton: [On one acquittal]: You have to temper that with the view that you know more about the case than they may have been presented with.

Judge Wraight: I was [defence] counsel for Peter Gant [in the Brett Whiteley art forgery trial] and we knew the jury didn't like us, but the evidence was such that there was a hurdle that they shouldn't have been convicted. Absolutely surprised that it occurred, but we turned it around at the Court of Appeal [Mr Gant had his deception convictions quashed]. Can judges read which way a jury will go? Judge Sexton: Juries are very good at generally keeping [hidden] any sign of what or how they're thinking. There's all sorts of ridiculous rumours that go around, that if they're laughing they're going to convict. Judge Wraight: Or if they look at the accused they're going to acquit. It's complete rubbish. Judge Sexton: Nobody knows.

Jury decisions sometimes surprise judges. Credit:Alamy Stock Photo What's the best excuse from someone to avoid jury duty? Judge Wraight: I generally just excuse them if they have an excuse and they don't want to be there, unless it's a really lame one. I was in Shepparton in October last year and this guy gets up and says: 'I work in the cannery and we're canning the peaches.' And I said: 'You've got to do that.' How do you wrangle over sending an otherwise good person to jail? Judge Wraight: Dangerous driving causing death is the classic example. They've used their phone and they may be a good person, but they've just made a mistake. Or if someone has just had a bad patch and they're otherwise good and not going to reoffend. You have the pressure with a dangerous driving and you usually jail them, but it's difficult, really difficult.

How do you respond to people who claim you're out of touch, or overpaid? Judge Sexton: You say everyone knows what we get paid, it's out there, I can't deny that's the level. But I would run through what a judge's life involves. If the community thinks it's excessive that's a matter for the people who set judges' salaries. I get paid for what I do and I work very hard for it. If you compare it to a chief executive of a large corporation who's making decisions that affect people, our decisions are affecting people ... but we're certainly not paid anything like the millions chief executives get. In terms of being out of touch, well, we have families, we have friends, we go to the swimming pool and play hockey with our mates, we catch public transport, and we go to the football and we see people around us all the time. Are judges crime junkies outside work? Judge Sexton: I love watching BBC crime series but I am a bit hopeless: I'll be on the couch going 'No, that is not admissible! There's no way the police would do that'. My family do get fed up with that sort of thing. Melbourne's County Court will have eight judges available for public Q&A sessions on Saturday. There will also be a charity barbecue and activities inside, including a mock plea hearing and tours of the custody cells.

The Supreme Court will hold a meet and greet with some of its judges, and the makers of its acclaimed podcast Gertie's Law. Tours of the court building and library are available. Melbourne Magistrates Court will also hold a Q&A session along with a mock bail application. The open day starts at 10am.