North Carolina Misdemeanors

Crimes are usually classified by severity - felonies, for instance, are typically more serious crimes that frequently result in prison sentences exceeding one year while misdemeanors tend to be less serious and usually carry sentences less than a year. In fact, misdemeanors often don't carry any jail time but only probation.

Classes of Misdemeanors

Misdemeanors in North Carolina are classified according to severity as well. The lower the number, the more serious the offense. This means that a Class 1 misdemeanor is much more serious than a Class 3 misdemeanor.

Actually, North Carolina also has a misdemeanor classification above Class 1 - this is Class 1A, the most serious form of misdemeanor. Those sentenced with Class 1A misdemeanors can expect to spend up to a year in jail and three years on probation.

Here are some common misdemeanors in North Carolina: simple assault, trespassing, passing off bad checks (when you know they're bad), marijuana possessing, carrying an illegal weapon, etc.

Expungement

The courts recognize the value in an ex-offender moving on with their life. Having a crime on your record can make getting a job, obtaining credit and other daily activities a lot harder. For this reason there is a program in place that will allow you to remove misdemeanors from your record.

This expungement process is not easy and you are not guaranteed to be able to remove the crime from your record. To be eligible for expungement in North Carolina one of the following will need to be the case:

1. You must have been under the age of eighteen when you committed the crimes and had no crimes from that point on.
2. You must have been arrested, but later acquitted of the charges.

If you were charged with a crime in North Carolina, you were over the age of eighteen and you served time for the crime, your chances of expungement are extremely thin. In this situation you will want to plead with the governor for a pardon. This is also extremely rare, but it is your only chance for completely cleaning your record of all past crimes.
If you are in this situation you should talk to an attorney who specializes in expungement.