Charlotte Criminal Lawyer Brad Smith answers the question: “What are the long term effects of being convicted of a crime?”
New North Carolina laws as part of the state’s criminal justice reform went into effect on December 1, 2020. As a result, more North Carolinians are eligible to apply for expungement of their criminal record to eliminate barriers to employment, housing, education, benefits, and voting.
Charlotte Criminal Lawyer Brad Smith answers the question:”What is an expungement?”
We have previously discussed the important changes that will soon go into effect regarding expungements in North Carolina. The law is set to change and will make it easier for more people to wipe the slate clean, deleting from their criminal history certain one-time mistakes that have continued to haunt them years into the future. But what if you do not qualify for expungement? Even though the laws have been loosened to allow more people to experience the benefit of expungement, there are still numerous restrictions that exclude many people in North Carolina.
We have previously discussed a new expungement law that will go into effect in North Carolina in just a few weeks. The measure, scheduled to be implemented on December 1, 2017, is aimed at improving the currently cumbersome expungement process. The law is specifically designed to make the process faster and simpler for those hoping for a fresh start. Though we have mentioned several aspects of the new law, we have not yet discussed in detail the requirement by background check entities to delete expunged records. For more information about this issue, keep reading.
Background
Before we jump into the details of the duty to delete expunged records, we should take a moment to reiterate some of the most important aspects of the new law. Currently, anyone interested in an expungement must wait a long time, 15 years for felonies or misdemeanors, assuming the conviction is first-time and non-violent. The newly revised law says that the wait time for first-time, non-violent felonies will be dropped to 10 years. First-time, non-violent misdemeanors will have even short waiting periods, as these will now be reduced to only five years. The new law is also helpful to those eager to get a clean slate in that it removes limits on expungements for dismissed charges or not guilty verdicts.
J. Bradley Smith of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question: “What are the long term effects of being convicted of a crime?”
Government leaders in Asheville, North Carolina have followed those throughout other cities and states across the country in “banning the box”. Ashville joins six other North Carolina local governments in deciding to remove criminal history questions form their job applications. The move is an important one for those in western North Carolina and, more broadly, for prospective employees with criminal histories across the country who may now be more likely to receive a fair shake when applying for work.
Charlotte Criminal Lawyer Blog