COEUR d'ALENE - First Judicial District Magistrate Barry Watson likes to say they're not files, they're families. They're not cases, they're people.

"You have to deal with them as individuals," Watson said in his chambers Monday. "You have to give each case the amount of time that case needs."

After dealing with thousands of cases each year in that manner for the past 22 years as a full-time magistrate in Kootenai County, Watson is retiring later this month.

Starting in February, he will begin working as a senior magistrate, which means he will handle cases as needed in the county, but only on a part-time basis.

"I'll work part time and then go skiing, or sailing, or hiking, or whatever the season is," Watson said Monday.

Watson, 62, took over Al Parisot's job in October 1992. Parisot had been a magistrate in Kootenai County for 20 years before Watson.

"The ultimate goal (in criminal cases) is to try to get the defendant to change their behavior so that they don't engage in that kind of activity in the future," Watson said. "You want to try and motivate people to change for the positive."

Coeur d'Alene attorney James Combo has been appointed by the 1st Judicial District Magistrate Commission to fill Watson's seat on the bench. Combo is scheduled to be sworn in Dec. 11, and would start receiving cases in January.

Watson is one of six magistrates serving Kootenai County within the 1st District. Only Magistrate Debra Heise in Bonner County has served longer in the district.

Watson said the judicial system in Kootenai County serves its citizens well, and has improved over the years.

"We're getting better outcomes than we used to back in the old days," he said.

Still, he said, it has been hard for the county justice system to keep pace with the county's rapid population growth.

Before becoming a magistrate in Kootenai County, Watson practiced law in Shoshone County.

He was a public defender there for a time and worked in private practice, too.

"When you're in a little town like Wallace you got to do pretty much anything that comes in - probates, guardianships and a little bit of everything," Watson said.

He was born and raised in Philadelphia, and went to college in the city at La Salle College (now University), graduating in 1974. He graduated in 1977 from the University of Akron's law school in Ohio.

He then moved to Coeur d'Alene, but was unable to find work as a lawyer in the city. So he moved to the Silver Valley and became a deputy public defender. He was a lawyer in Shoshone County for 15 years.