For some years he was a revising barrister, and in December 1872 became a commissioner for hearing municipal election petitions.
Richard Assheton Cross appointed him a metropolitan police magistrate on 2 September 1878, and he sat at the Thames police-court until his resignation a few days before his death.
With Henry Thomas Cole, Saunders compiled Bail Court Reports, 1847–1849, 2 vols.
With E. W. Cox, Saunders compiled Reports of County Court Cases’ 1852, and The Criminal Law Consolidation Acts, 1861 (2nd edit.
1844; The Magistrate's Year Book, 1860; George Colwell Oke's Magisterial Formulist, 5th ed.