Category: Criminal Law

Car accident ticket in NC

10/7/2019

A car accident in North Carolina often results in one or both drivers receiving a ticket for a moving violation. This can occur even though the officer was not witness to the wreck. A police report is generally not even admissible in court without the officer being present in court due to the hearsay rule. It is important to realize that pleading guilty to an accident ticket in NC is akin to admitting fault for the accident. With North Carolina being a contributory negligence State that mistake can preclude any opportunity to sue for your own damages even if the other driver was at fault.

After any accident it is important to immediately notify your insurance company to make sure you comply with your contractual duty or else you may provide your insurance company an opportunity to deny your coverage. Most DA’s are willing to dismiss the ticket after your insurance company provides a letter accepting liability and paying for any damages incurred by the other driver.

Can you get a ticket after a car wreck in NC?

At fault drivers often receive a traffic citation for an accident adding insult to injury. Some of the following are the most common tickets issued as a result of an accident:

Failure to reduce speed
Failure to yield
Driving left of center
Unsafe movement
Red light violation
Exceeding safe speed
Reckless driving
Failure to report accident
Hit and Run

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Under 21 DWI in NC

9/8/2019

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Updated 1/22/2020

The Blood Alcohol Concentration or “BAC” limit for drivers under 21 in North Carolina is 0.00. This “zero tolerance” for underage drinking and driving is deterrence to the extreme. To further this end, a conviction of “driving after consuming” under NCGS 138.3 will result in a one year license revocation just like a DWI. This means a 20 year old who only had 1 sip of beer and blew a 0.01 can lose his or her license for a year. If the underage driver is suspected of being impaired they will also be charged with DWI as well.

DWI vs Driving after Consuming in NC

The "Driving after Consuming" charge only applies to those under age 21, and does not require any actual impairment due to alcohol. In fact any BAC above 0.01 can result in the charge. Someone under age 21 can be charged with both DWI and driving after consuming if they were in fact impaired. A DWI charge is basically automatic for a BAC of 0.08 or above. Each charge for first time offenders is a misdemeanor with similar consequences despite DWI having its own special sentencing guidelines.

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Is Marijuana legal in NC?

5/1/2019

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Updated 12/27/2020

Marijuana or “weed” is not currently legal to grow or possess in North Carolina. Many people seem to be confused about this with CBD oil signs and Hemp stores seeming to proliferate much like video gambling arcades. There are currently 10 states that have decriminalized possession of marijuana in some form (medicinal and/or recreational) in addition to Washington, DC with that number seeming to rise every year and likely to continue to do so going forward.

Although currently illegal, North Carolina seems to propose legislation to make weed legal on an annual basis. The latest attempt is NC Senate Bill 58 that would decriminalize possession of up to 3 ounces of marijuana for personal use. Those convicted in the past would even be eligible to go back and have their record expunged. WSOC TV 9 in Charlotte recently did an interview with NC House Bill 766 legislature sponsors who spoke of the need to unclog the jails with people charged with possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Is Marijuana legal under federal law?

Even though several states including Washington. DC have decriminalized marijuana in some capacity it is still technically illegal under federal law. At the moment the federal government appears to see the writing on the wall and is simply choosing to not interfere with states that have chosen to decriminalize personal use. Because of long standing federal law that could be enforced at any moment many banks refuse to work with pot dispensaries and hence most operate as a cash only business. In fact there is actually bipartisan support for the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act which would essentially allow states to decide the fact of marijuana within their borders. Both President Trump and Attorney General William Barr have signaled support for the legislation. Passage of this may embolden many states to act that were hesitant to openly defy federal law.

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NC Raise the Age Law

1/3/2019

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Effective December 1, 2019 the legal age to be charged as an adult for many crimes will be raised to age 18 years of age in North Carolina. The Juvenile Justice Reinvestment Act essentially brings NC in line with the rest of the country as treating most 16 and 17 year olds as juveniles for criminal prosecution purposes. There are of course some major exceptions such as for traffic violations and serious felonies. Although the law still needs to be amended to fix some potential pitfalls this is a major victory for equal justice as NC was essentially putting its own juveniles at a competitive disadvantage by exposing them to adult criminal records for minor offenses such as larceny, trespassing, alcohol offenses, and simple possession of drugs.

What are the expected benefits of the raise the age law?

Cost savings
Reduce recidivism
Encourage juvenile employment
Involve parents in the process
Consistency with laws across the country
Provide delinquent juveniles with treatment
Treat kids differently than adults

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New Expungement Law in NC

8/1/2017

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Updated 1/11/2021

Governor Roy Cooper signed a new expungement law that went into effect on December 1, 2017. The main change is a reduction in the wait period to expunge non-violent misdemeanor and felony convictions. A primary goal of Senate Bill 445, which was a bipartisan effort, is allowing more people to clear their criminal record faster. The hope is 2 million North Carolina residents with criminal records will be able to get jobs after they have paid their debt to society.

As part of the same initiative, House Bill 280, which goes into effect on December, 1 2019, raises the minimum age to be charged as an adult to age 18 for most non-violent offenses. North Carolina was one of the last holdouts that charged 16 year old children as adults for any and all criminal offenses- now that mainly applies to serious felony and driving offenses.

New Expunction law changes in NC effective December 2017

Misdemeanor convictions wait period reduced from 15 years to 5 years.
Felony convictions wait period reduced from 15 years to 10 years.
No more limit on number of dismissals than can be expunged.
Prosecutors and law enforcement will have access to records.

NC Second Chance Act

On June 25, 2020 Governor Cooper signed State Bill 562, or the “Second Chance Act,” allows individuals with nonviolent criminal records to have multiple misdemeanors and/or multiple low-level felonies expunged if they have not had any new convictions in the last 10 years for felony expunctions or 7 years for misdemeanor expunction. The bill also provides for the automatic expunction of charges dismissed after December 1, 2021. Be advised this new law changes makes many of the blog responses below outdated.