Who decides a case if it goes to trial?

The trial court’s discretion. A judge, not a jury, hears child custody matters in civil district court. Because the trial judge has the opportunity to see the parties and witnesses firsthand, the judge may exercise broad discretion in making a custody determination. The lesson here is to know one’s judge prior to trial and to understand the judge’s predispositions, if any, regarding awards of custody. In some counties in North Carolina, the parties have flexibility in their choice of a judge to preside over the custody hearing. In other counties, judges are assigned and the parties have little or no choice in the matter. The trial court has the power to award custody to both parties about equally, or to give primary custody to one party with visitation privileges to the other. In actual practice, however, North Carolina judges very rarely split the time a child resides with each parent in a way that approximates one-half of the time to each parent. The reason for this may well be a judicial unwillingness to believe that parents who are in court fighting over custody will be able to cooperate about anything regarding the child. Joint custody in the sense of equal time sharing would require the greatest amount of cooperation between parents. Thus, the most common custodial arrangement ordered by a judge will be primary physical custody in one parent (which might be “sole custody” if that parent is also given most decision making authority), with the child having secondary time with the other parent.