After more than 23 years on the bench, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jerald Bagley is stepping down to start a private practice, effective March 31.

His new venture, J. Bagley Mediation Services, launches April 1 in Miami.

Bagley, 64, dedicated more than three decades to the legal profession, beginning with a 12-year stint as an assistant state attorney under Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and previously Janet Reno.

On the circuit bench, he served in all divisions, including two years in juvenile court and eight in the criminal division.

“I'm trying to go out with very little fanfare,” Bagley said Monday in a telephone interview. “I just tried to do my job — the good work that many of my colleagues do. … Serving the public is good enough for me, and I'm proud to have spent the last 35 years doing so.”

The longtime prosecutor served in the juvenile and felony divisions of the state attorney's office before rising to the circuit bench in 1995. His ran unopposed in 2014, winning a six-year term that was set to expire in January 2021.

“I am very thankful for the privilege and honor of serving 23 years as a circuit judge, working alongside so many excellent colleagues and support and administrative staff,” he wrote in a Jan. 29 retirement letter to Gov. Rick Scott. “I retire knowing that I have given much but received more from so many opportunities gained from my previous position as an assistant state attorney and currently as a circuit judge.”

Of the hundreds of cases he's adjudicated, Bagley said a divorce involving a pro se wife stayed with him for years and had the most profound effect on his daily approach as a jurist.

The case pitted a husband and his attorney against his soon-to-be-ex-wife who represented herself in court. At the end of the proceeding as Bagley was preparing to deliver his decision, the woman got up to leave the courtroom.

“I asked her had she not wanted to hear the court's ruling, and she said no. She said, 'You're the one person who gave me the opportunity to say what I wanted to say, and I believe you'll do what's right,' “ Bagley  recalled. “That's what struck me with this young lady. She wanted the opportunity to be heard. … I always had an understanding of due process, but that experience really drove it home for me.”

Later, when the husband's attorney offered to draft the final ruling, the judge declined and wrote his own.

“I've tried a lot of cases,” Bagley said. “I never look at the sheets that show the [caseload] numbers. I try not to concern myself about that. I never look at the sheets that show the numbers. My goal was to make sure that folks had the opportunity to get before me.”

In recent years, those “folks” included pop star Justin Bieber and a colleague, Circuit Judge Jason Bloch, who lost a bid to have his 2016 election opponent thrown off the ballot.

Bagley was an unsuccessful finalist for three openings on the federal bench in the Southern District of Florida in 2011 and 2012.

Meanwhile, 11 candidates applied to the Miami-Dade Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission to replace the outgoing judge. A news release listed William Altfield, Michelle Barton-King, Alexander S. Bokor, Tanya J. Brinkley, Karl Brown, Carlos M. Guzman, Ayana N. Harris, Carlos Lopez, Luis Perez-Medina, Joseph D. Perkins and Andrea Ricker Wolfson.