Her brief stint in the Office of the Insurance Commissioner was cut short when she became a legal researcher in the Court of First Instance of Rizal (October 1964 - July 1969), thus, starting her long and illustrious career in the judiciary.
From being a researcher, she gradually worked her way up in the ladder of judicial hierarchy and, in the process, held various positions such as Attorney Researcher (July 1969 - December 1975), Senior Attorney (January 1976 - October 20, 1976), and eventually Division Clerk of Court of the Court of Appeals (October 21, 1976 - January 17, 1983).
On January 18, 1983, she was appointed as the Presiding Judge of the Regional Trial Court (Branch XXXVI) of Calamba, Laguna.
Austria-Martinez also attended the 31st Program of Instruction for Lawyers held at the Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1999.
[1] In September 2008, Austria-Martinez, citing health reasons, filed a letter to the Supreme Court of the Philippines through Reynato Puno, tendering her resignation effective April 30, 2009, or 15 months before her compulsory retirement on December 19, 2010.
In the October 1 Judicial and Bar Council's en banc deliberations, Reynato Puno ruled: “The court merely noted it.
Neither is she physically or mentally incapacitated, but she has chosen to retire on April 30, 2009 because she felt she could no longer cope with the heavy caseload.