[3] He grew up in Whangārei and was educated at Pompallier Catholic College, where he was head prefect and dux in 1975.
[2] In January 1981, France married Ellen Larkin, who he had met during his first year at law school in Auckland, and they both then undertook postgraduate studies in Canada, at Queen's University at Kingston.
[2] On his return to New Zealand in 1984, France became a law lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington.
During that time he was the judge who presided over several complicated and high-profile criminal cases, including the trial of Ewen Macdonald for the murder of Scott Guy in 2012, and the 2015 retrial of Mark Lundy for the Lundy murders.
[2] Fellow High Court judge, Sir Ron Young, has stated that, in court, France's intellect was evident as he coped with extremely complex issues, interpreting abstruse evidence and arcane legal principles for juries of laypeople but that he was also compassionate with those appearing before him as defendants or witnesses.