JOSEPH E. DASCHBACH, a longtime judge in the Hanover and Lebanon District Courts, has retired from the bench. He stepped down in late August after nearly 25 years of service in the district courts to dedicate more time to his law practice.

A partner with the Lebanon law firm Daschbach, Cooper & Hotchkiss, Daschbach, 64, received his law degree from Georgetown in 1968 and was admitted to the NH Bar the same year. He was first appointed special justice to Hanover District Court in 1977, which was a part-time position. He was named presiding judge of that court in 1981, again part-time.

In 1996 the Legislature decided to combine the Hanover and Lebanon District Courts, and the statute so doing stated that the senior justice of those courts would preside. Daschbach, therefore, became part-time presiding justice of the combined court, which is located in Lebanon.

Daschbach said that although as a judge in Hanover and Lebanon he sat on average only once a week, the office work outside of the courtroom began piling up, leaving him little time to devote to his law practice, so he decided to step down from the bench. "There was getting to be too much work and not enough time to do it. My law practice is so busy that it got tough to manage the office, to have a private law practice while doing all the work required to be a judge," he said.

Daschbach's specialty in his four-lawyer Lebanon firm is general litigation. The firm also handles probate matters, estate planning, commercial transactions and real estate transactions.

Daschbach said the biggest change he saw in the district courts during his 25 years on the bench was the "professionalization" of the courts. As a result of formal court unification in 1984 - and the supervisory role taken by the Administrative Office of the Courts - the courts began sharing common information and standards of practice. The rules of procedure and operational methods of the state's district courts then became more uniform, said Daschbach. "The courts became a much more professionalized organization. It was a good thing," he said.

What Daschbach will miss most about being a judge is the interaction with the court staff and with the people who came before him. "The opportunity to deal with people and their problems and, one hopes, solve those problems has been satisfying," he said.

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