Understanding the Civil Court Process

The body of law dealing with the rights of private citizens in a particular state or nation as distinguished from criminal law, military law or international law.

A civil action in court is one whose aim is to protect a private, civil right or to obtain a civil remedy. Civil cases usually involve family issues such as divorce or child custody. The vast majority of civil court cases are heard in District Court. In the family law arena in North Carolina, the heart balm suits - alienation of affections and criminal conversation - are usually tried in Superior Court because the amount in controversy exceeds $10,000; the District Court maximum.

North Carolina is divided into 40 districts with 235 District Court judges who hear more than two million cases each year. A jury may be requested for the trial of a civil case before a district court judge. In family law cases, the only jury trial matters are alimony trials. Under "new" North Carolina law, where a Judge must consider some 14 factors in an alimony trial, juries are really surplusage. Lawyers use the jury demands to put pressure on the wrongdoer who does not want his or her "dirty laundry" in the public eye. ( Nor do they want their girlfriend or boyfriend exposed and castigated!!)

Generally, District Court judges hear cases involving less than $10,000 in claimed damages. Claims in excess of $10,000 are heard in Superior Court.

Alienation of Affections - this civil remedy originated at Common Law. All the initial justification for this legal remedy concerned situations where a man's wife was taken from him. Each spouse is entitled to an exclusive sexual relationship to the other spouse. When the remedy arose, wives were thought of as property. One had a remedy when someone stole your cattle but not your wife. Thus, the remedy was born. North Carolina is one of a handful of states that have this cause of action today. Current issues concern jurisdiction questions - if the lover is in Tennessee, which has no recognizable claim for alienation, can the lover be sued in North Carolina. It all turns on minimum contacts issues.

I have handled over thirty (30) of these cases in the past 12 years, representing the Plaintiff and the Defendant about an equal number of times. My winning percentage in these matters exceeds 85%.

Criminal concersation is the tort word for adultery. In almost all occasions, the evidence as to this is circumstantial. The key words are inclination and opportunity. If two adults are healthy and interested in sex and witnesses can put them in a situation such as a motel room overnight then the evidence is sufficient. In a case that I won in the North Carolina Court of Appeals some years ago, curiously named Horney v. Horney, the appellate court found that men and women can be friends and the Plaintiff wife had failed to prove that a romantic relationship existed between the Defendant husband and his female "friend". The jury in that case had found there were no indignities - marital misconduct that is repeated and occurs over a substantial period of time - but found there was adultery. The North Carolina Court of Appeals threw out the adultery finding. The result was that my client, the Husband, did not have to pay alimony to his former wife.

John W. Lunsford, Attorney at Law
3200 Northline Ave
Suite 130, Signature Place
Greensboro, NC 27408

Post Office Box 41056
Greensboro, NC 27404-1056

Phone: (336) 908-1414
Email: jwlford@yahoo.com