From 1917 Goddard served successively as recorder (judge) of Poole (Dorset), Bath, and Plymouth until 1932, when he was made judge of the high court of justice, King's Bench division. In 1938 he became a lord justice of appeal and in 1944 a lord of appeal in ordinary, and he was created a life peer as Baron Goddard of Aldbourne, Wiltshire. His work as lord chief justice was especially notable because he assumed the office at the age of 69.