§ 612 Reference of issues by consent of parties.

If everyone involved in a lawsuit agrees, they can send some or all of the issues in the case to someone else to decide, instead of having a judge handle everything. This can include questions about facts (what actually happened) or questions about the law (how the law applies to the case), or both.

For this to happen, all parties have to agree to it. They can do this in writing, or they can agree out loud in court, as long as the agreement gets written down in the official court record. Without this agreement from everyone involved, the case can't be sent off in this way.