Ada County has a new magistrate judge: Boise attorney Jill Jurries, whose appointment was announced today by the 4th District Magistrate Commission. She’ll start in January. Idaho has 89 magistrate judges, 23 of them in the 4^th District, which is centered in Ada County. Jurries, 40, who has been assigned to the magistrate court’s family law docket, currently has a private law practice in Boise specializing in family law, child custody and mediation.

She has practiced law in Idaho since 2001 and has been a member of the Idaho Supreme Court’s roster of mediators since 2006. She also is a former criminal investigator for the U.S. Secret Service, and is a former deputy prosecuting attorney for Payette County. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Seattle Pacific University and a law degree from Pepperdine University School of Law. Magistrates serve four-year terms; voters then decide whether to renew their appointments for another four years in a retention election.