Magistrate Pahl is a full time attorney/magistrate, appointed to his current position in March of 1992. He is a graduate of Ferris State College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Law Enforcement. He earned his Juris Doctor from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan in 1981 and was admitted to the Michigan Bar in 1982.
Prior to coming to the court, he practiced law with the firm of Pahl & Hengesbach. Magistrate Pahl also spent 20 years working in public law enforcement, receiving several hundred hours of specialized training in traffic crash investigations.
Magistrate Pahl has attended courses at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada, studying subjects such as Traffic Adjudication, Issuing Search Warrants, Small Claims Adjudication, Faculty Development and Motor Carrier Regulations & Licensing laws. He has also completed specialized Motor Carrier Adjudication Schools.
He is a training magistrate for the Michigan Judicial Institute (MJI is the training component of the Michigan Supreme Court). He instructs the motor carrier law segment for MJI's New Magistrate School. He has served on several committees for the State Court Administrator's Office. He was a part of the group that authored the Magistrate's Bench Book. For four years, he sat as a member of the Michigan Law Enforcement Information Network Policy Council by appointment of the State Court Administrator's Office, representing District Court interests.
Magistrate Pahl is a member of the Michigan Association of District Court Magistrates. He has been a member of the board of directors since 1994 in various capacities, currently sitting on the Board of Directors as the immediate Past President. He is the 2005 recipient of the Association's Distinguished Service Award.
Magistrates conduct informal hearings on civil infractions, conducts arraignments for both misdemeanor and felony charges, conducts hearings in the Small Claims Division of the court, conducts probable cause hearings and issues arrest and search warrants, performs weddings and other duties as assigned by the Chief Judge of the Court. Magistrate Pahl has administrative duties as an assistant court administrator and was interim court administrator on three occasions.
