Anyone can be charged with a crime, and many people are wrongfully accused. Just because someone has been charged does not mean they are guilty. Criminal charges, even wrongful criminal charges, result in criminal records which can affect people for their entire life. Therefore, it is very important that people who are charged take the matter seriously and take appropriate steps to avoid or mitigate the negative consequences of criminal charges. In some cases, it is possible to have criminal records expunged which means the official public records are removed and destroyed by a process called expungement or expunction.

In North Carolina, if a person is convicted of a crime which occurred after they were 18 years of age or older, the conviction cannot be expunged. However, in some cases, it may be possible to reopen a case through a motion for appropriate relief, and thereafter have the charge dismissed. If successful, it may then be expunged. Convictions for misdemeanors which occurred before the defendant was 18 years old may be expunged when certain conditions are met.

Criminal charges for which the defendant was not convicted, i.e. the charges were dismissed or the defendant was found not guilty, may be expunged. However, a defendant may only receive an expungement for a set of charges which all occurred within a 12 month period or which were all disposed in the same term of court. A defendant may only receive one expungement in North Carolina, with a few exceptions.

Criminal charges based on another person using their identity (i.e. identity theft), which are dismissed may be expunged, and there appears to be no limit on the number of charges which can be expunged under this provision. In addition, charges for which one has received a pardon of innocence may be expunged, and there appears to be no limit on the number of charges which can be expunged under this provision. There are also statutes which provide for expungement of some drug charges which are dismissed pursuant to statutory deferred prosecution provisions.

If you have been charged with a crime and want to discuss the possibility of an expungement or expunction, call Collins Law Firm at 910-793-9000.

The holidays are upon us and most people are attending holiday parties and other holiday events.  Many of these events offer alcohol and law enforcement is aware of that fact.    Enforcement of traffic laws are often increased during holidays and this season is no exception.   Last week alone, for example, there were over 70 people charged with driving while impaired (DWI/DUI) in New Hanover County, NC.  Here is an article in the Wilmington Star News about the stepped up enforcement in New Hanover and Brunswick Counties.

It is not illegal in North Carolina to drive after drinking alcohol, however it is illegal to drive with a blood alcohol level of 0.08 or
higher, or while appreciably impaired due to any impairing substance including alcohol.   Most people are not able to easily determine whether or not their blood alcohol level is above 0.08.

We encourage everyone to use a designated driver, and no one should drive drunk.  While we are certainly not advocates of drinking and driving, if you are charged with driving while impaired, Collins Law Firm can help.  We have been representing people charged with criminal and traffic charges for over a decade in Pender, New Hanover, and Brunswick Counties.

If you are charged with DWI and registered a 0.08 or higher, your NC driving privilege will be revoked for 30 days immediately pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 20-16.5.  However, the statute provides the right for a hearing to contest the revocation if the proper request is filed within ten (10) days from the date of offense.   Defendants charged with DWI/DUI are notified of this right by the Magistrate in writing in the revocation order.   Collins Law Firm is often able to successfully challenge these revocations, and in those cases we are able to have our client’s driving privileges restored immediately without additional costs.   If not successful in the civil revocation hearing, or if the ten days has elapsed, we can usually obtain a pretrial limited driving privilege for the last 20 days of the initial 30 day revocation.  However, obtaining this privilege does require additional costs, and the driving privileges are limited.

Although most people charged with DWI are convicted, in many cases we have been able to avoid convictions altogether for our clients.   When we are not able to avoid a conviction, we can certainly help people understand the consequences of being charged and convicted with DWI/DUI, help our clients receive the minimum punishment upon conviction, and reduce the inconvenience and uncertainties involved with being charged.

If you or someone you know has been charged with impaired driving, or with any criminal or traffic violation, call us for a consultation at 910-793-9000.

Traffic tickets can be a lot more expensive than the fine and court costs stated on the ticket. For most traffic tickets, if you just pay off the ticket, you will be convicted of the charge, and you will be assessed points both on your driver’s license and on your insurance policy. Insurance points can be very expensive. They cause your insurance premiums to increase for three years, and for most policies, that will add up to thousands of dollars. Details about insurance points and the percentage of premium increases can be found here. In addition to insurance points, convictions for many charges, and convictions for multiple charges will result in the revocation of your driver’s license. The loss of one’s driving privilege entails more costs for most people.  Here are some examples of revocations for convictions.

In this great recession, many people are being short sighted and think they are saving money by not hiring an experienced attorney to represent them with their traffic charges. The result is that the ticket costs them much more than they would have paid an attorney to handle it for them.

Collins Law Firm has handled thousands of traffic tickets for our clients over the past ten plus years, and in most cases we have been able to avoid insurance points altogether. Furthermore, for most simple tickets (stop sign violations, speeding violations, etc.), our clients do not even need to go to court. We offer free phone consultations for most traffic matters. If you need advice or information about representation for a traffic violation, call us at: 910-793-9000.

A possible disposition for a criminal or traffic charge (either an infraction, misdemeanor, or a felony) unique to North Carolina state courts, is a Prayer for Judgment Continued, or PJC.  When requesting a court to grant a request for a PJC, the proper way attorneys ask is to request that the “judgment be continued,” or to request that the court “continue judgment.”  While a PJC is an excellent result in many cases, it may not be the best result for all criminal or traffic cases.

Our experience has been that the effect of a PJC is highly misunderstood by most people, including lawyers or other legal professionals not experienced in traffic or criminal law.

The effect of a PJC for traffic violations is controlled by statutes and varies with the context in which it is considered.  A PJC may or may not avoid points, and the rules are different with respect to driver’s license points (or DMV points) or insurance points.   We have posted an article explaining more details about what a PJC is and how it may affect one’s record on our site, and a brief summary of how a PJC may affect insurance and DMV points for traffic violations.

Any time you are considering requesting a PJC, you should always consult with an experienced criminal or traffic lawyer.  If you have a pending court date for a criminal matter or traffic violation, call Attorney David Collins at Collins Law Firm for a consultation at 910-793-9000.

At Collins Law Firm, we have been practicing criminal and traffic law in Southeastern North Carolina for over a decade and David Collins has been licensed to practice law in both North Carolina and South Carolina since 1993.  The counties we cover for criminal and traffic matters include (County/Seat of Court): Brunswick County/Bolivia, NC; New Hanover County/Wilmington, NC; Pender County/Burgaw, NC; Columbus County/Whiteville, NC; Bladen County/Elizabethtown, NC; Sampson County/Clinton, NC; Duplin County/Kenansville, NC; and Onslow County/Jacksonville, NC.

The Wilmington Star recently ran a story about a report published by the Administrative Office of the Courts which shows that felony criminal charges, on average, have been resolved in the shortest amount of time amongst all of the 43 prosecutorial districts in North Carolina. The statewide median number of days for the resolution of felony cases was 181 days, within the 5th prosecutorial district, the median number days was 106. The district attorney’s office attributed the efficiency to the felony district court program run by Assistant District Attorney Holt Trotman. The program is informally known in the court house as felony Thursday, because the court is held on Thursdays.

The only dispositions which are possible are guilty pleas or dismissals. If cases are not resolved in district court, they are then sent to the Grand Jury for indictment and resolved in Superior Court. If a defendant is charged with a low level felony and has a clean criminal history, it is often possible to have those charges reduced to misdemeanors. In some cases deferred prosecutions can be arranged which would result ultimately in the dismissal of the case. In many cases, charges which were originally felonies which are dismissed through a deferred prosecution or outright dismissed, can be expunged and completely removed from one’s public criminal record, if the defendant has not had an expungement before. Criminal charges which were dismissed but for which there was not an expunction will remain on one’s criminal record. However the record will show that the charges were dismissed. Attorney David Collins of Collins Law Firm regularly appears in the felony district court program for New Hanover County which is located in Wilmington, NC. If you wish to call us for a consultation regarding any legal matters for which you need legal representation, feel free to call us at (910) 793-9000.

The UNCW newspaper, theseahawk.org, recently reported that alcohol violations were up 50% and drug violations were up 23% over the previous year. Students should be aware that if they are convicted of an alcohol or drug offense such as possession of marijuana, underage drinking or possession of an open container, a criminal conviction could remain on their record for the rest of their life. However, there are ways to avoid a conviction and Collins Law Firm has avoided convictions in hundreds if not thousands of cases involving controlled substances or alcohol.

The article also reported that burglaries are down 47% from the previous year which is good news.

Collins Law Firm is located only one mile from the UNCW campus and offers student discounts so UNCW students should feel free to call (910) 793-9000 for a consultation regarding legal matters we handle.

Labor Day is over, school started back and it is almost fall. We hope everybody had a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend. There was heavy traffic in most parts of the country and if you happened to get a speeding ticket or traffic citation in Southeast North Carolina, Collins Law Firm can help.

In most cases, so long as you have a clean driving records for speeding tickets at non-excessively high speeds, we can avoid court appearances and points on both your insurance and DMV record. For people with violations already on their record, there are still ways in most cases that points can be avoided. In some cases the defendant may have to go to driving school and in some cases a Prayer for Judgement Continued (PJC) maybe used. However, PJC is a valuable option to dispose of a traffic charge which should only be used when necessary.

For example, if there are multiple members of a household and one person uses a PJC, if another person in the household gets a traffic citation within the next three years and receives a PJC, insurance points will assessed for that violation.

Collins Law Firm has been representing people charged with traffic citations, speeding tickets, and other criminal charges in Southeast North Carolina for over ten years and we will be happy to discuss your situation with you by phone at no charge if you receive a traffic citation. Call the Collins Law Firm at (910) 793-9000.

Hurricane Earl has passed our area, and thankfully without inflicting much serious damage to our area.

Now we are heading into a busy Labor Day weekend. The American Automobile Association (AAA) is predicting a 10% increase in travelers on the road this year over last year. They predict that about 34.4 million people are likely to take trips of at least 50 miles.

That means that everyone needs to take greater precautions and plan for heavier traffic and slower travel paces. Law enforcement is likely to be stepped up this weekend and many people will likely receive speeding tickets or other traffic citations, and there are likely to be more accidents on the road than on non-holiday weekends. There are also likely to be impaired drivers and boaters who will receive DWI/DUI’s and BWI/BUI’s (boating while impaired/under the influence).

Anyone who receives a ticket or other criminal charges, or who is involved in an accident can call Collins Law Firm for a consultation about what we can do to help. We have been serving Southeastern North Carolina around the Wilmington, NC area for over ten years, representing people charged with traffic tickets or other criminal charges and people injured in traffic accidents or crashes.

Please be safe and have a wonderful weekend!

Collins Law Firm

For students, the summer is over and school is starting again. Many students will be starting college for the first time and it will be in a new environment with many challenges and temptations.

Underage drinking and use of controlled substances is common on most, if not all, college campuses.   For some law enforcement agencies, back to school means stepped-up enforcement of alcohol laws as well as general law enforcement.   This means that many students will be receiving criminal charges or citations for underage drinking or other related criminal activities including underage possession, underage consumption, and fake ID’s.   Some people do not consider these serious charges, but they are misdemeanor charges for which a conviction can mean a criminal record that can affect a person for the rest of their life with respect to getting jobs, renting apartments and otherwise.   Anyone charged with a crime should consult with an experienced criminal defense attorney.

Collins Law Firm regularly represents people who have been charged with alcohol law violations and other crimes such as possession of marijuana or other controlled substances.   In most cases for first time offenders, we are able to avoid a conviction, and court appearances are usually not necessary for defendants we represent on these type of charges.    However, in most cases, the defendant is required to perform a certain number of hours of volunteer service, or to participate in some type of educational program regarding alcohol and controlled substances, or both.

If you or someone you know has received a citation or criminal charge for an alcohol law violation or related charge, Collins Law Firm can help.  Call us at (910) 793-9000(910) 793-9000 for a free telephone consultation or make an appointment to come in for a consultation.

If you get a speeding ticket outside of North Carolina as a North Carolina licensed driver and just pay it off, it could cause your license here to be revoked.   Because of the Interstate Driver License Compact, the vast majority of states exchange information for moving convictions in motor vehicles.  If you get a speeding ticket in a member state for speeding more than 15 miles per hour over the speed limit, and the speed at which you are charged to have been speeding is 55 miles per hour or more, your license in North Carolina will very likely be revoked.   Similarly, if you are charged with speeding more than ten miles per hour over the speed limit in a 70 mile per hour zone or higher, your license in North Carolina will very likely be revoked.

Once the NC Department of Motor Vehicles gets notification of such a conviction, the NC licensed driver will be sent notification of the pending revocation and given notice of the right to have a hearing.  If the DMV hearing is not requested properly within the time frame allowed for such a request, the revocation will go into effect and it will no longer be possible to request a hearing.

If you have received such a notice, Collins Law Firm can help.   Give us a call at (910) 793-9000(910) 793-9000 to discuss the details.