Criminal Defense Attorney Preston Edwards explains that for lower-level offenses, like misdemeanor larceny or DWI, bonds will likely be set by a Magistrate. In the State of North Carolina, Magistrates are unelected officials and may not even be attorneys. They are required to follow strict guidelines set by the State Legislature that determine what sort of bond can be set for individual offenses. Although they are supposed to take certain factors into account, they do not have much leeway when setting a bond.
For more serious offenses, a District Court Judge will be more likely to set the bond. District Court Judges are elected and are also most probably an attorney. They have much more discretion when setting a bond than a Magistrate regardless of the level of offense. However, they still set a bond according to strict criteria. They consider things like community ties, criminal history, ability to return to court, and most especially whether people have failed to return to court in the past, which will greatly affect a bond whether it’s set by a District Court Judge or a Magistrate.