felony Archives - Plumides, Romano & Johnson, pc

Misunderstood Terms in Criminal Law

criminal-misdemeanors-felonies-charges-arrest-jail-embezzlement-larceny-theft-property-offenses-burglery-lawyers-attorneys-charlotte-nc-mecklenburg-judges

Commonly Misunderstood Terms in North Carolina Criminal Law

In the court of public opinion, there are only two kinds of crime, namely violent crime and nonviolent crime, and violent crime is always bad. Even as public support increases for pretrial diversion programs and other ways of reducing mass incarceration, a lot of people will qualify their statements with “only for nonviolent offenses.” Therefore, if you are being accused of assault, domestic violence, or any other crime related to physical violence, you might feel like you have no one on your side. In fact, all defendants in criminal cases, no matter the seriousness of the crime of which they are accused, have legal rights, including the right to representation by a lawyer. If you are facing charges for a violent crime, contact a Charlotte criminal defense attorney.

Assault and Battery are Not Interchangeable

There are a lot of things that most people do not understand about criminal law until they get charged with a crime, including the differences between some closely related offenses. There are many incidents in which a defendant gets charged with assault and also with battery, but the terms “assault” and “battery” are not the same. Assault is any action that causes the victim to feel a reasonable fear of imminent physical harm, such as brandishing your fist in front of the victim’s face. You can be convicted of assault even if you do not make physical contact with the victim. Battery is any hostile touching of another person, such as punching or slapping, whether it causes a visible injury or not.

Murder, Manslaughter, and Homicide

According to North Carolina law, murder and homicide are the same. These terms mean that the defendant intentionally killed the victim; the degrees of homicide depend on how premeditated the killing was. Manslaughter is when the victim died as a result of the defendant’s actions, but the defendant did not intend to kill the victim. It is voluntary manslaughter if the defendant intended to injure the victim but did not think that the victim would die, such as if the defendant and the victim got into a fistfight and the victim died of their injuries. Involuntary manslaughter is if the defendant caused an accident in which the victim suffered fatal injuries.

Another common misconception about violent crimes is that they are all felonies. In fact, it is possible to get misdemeanor charges for assault or battery if the victim does not sustain serious injuries. The chances that the prosecutors will treat your assault or battery charges as misdemeanors are greater if the victim was not seriously injured and if there were no weapons involved.

Meet Our Legal Team

Contact Us

Revoked License & Transportation Issues

misdemeanor-dui-dwi-license-blood-alchol-level-breathalyzer-arrest-jail-bail-top-experienced-dui-dwi-charlotte-lawyers

For many people in rural areas of North Carolina and even some urban areas, public transportation is not widely available enough that you’ll have a reliable way to commute. If you’re in that category of people and have had your driver’s license suspended because of an impaired driving-related conviction or certain traffic ticket convictions, you’re probably wondering how on earth you’re supposed to keep your job until you can reinstate your license. The good news is that you may qualify for a Limited Driving Privilege (“LDP”), which is governed by North Carolina General Statute § 20-179.3.

A Limited Driving Privilege is a court order that allows you to still drive for purposes related to employment, education, maintaining your household (i.e., going to buy groceries), religious worship, emergency medical care, substance abuse assessment, or treatment ordered by the court, and community service that is a condition of your probation. However, if you are suspended because of an impaired driving-related conviction, there are certain requirements that must be met in order for the court to find you eligible for an LDP in North Carolina:

At the time of the offense of conviction, you must have had a valid driver’s license or an otherwise valid license that had been expired for less than one year;
You cannot have been convicted of any other impaired driving offense (DWI/DUI) within the last seven years;
Since the date of the offense, you cannot have been convicted of another impaired driving offense;
You were sentenced as a Level 3, 4, or 5 for the instant DWI; and
You have completed a substance abuse assessment and filed a proof of completion with the court.

There are enhanced requirements to get an LDP if you had a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.15 or more at the time of the offense. In addition, the requirements to get an LDP are a bit different if you’re seeking to get an LDP due to a traffic ticket conviction unrelated to impaired driving. If you or a loved one are facing a DWI charge, traffic ticket, or license suspension, please contact one of our experienced criminal attorneys to help advocate for your rights.

IF CONVICTED Of A DWI OR DUI

A sentencing hearing will follow where the prosecutor and defendant can present aggravating and mitigating evidence.

There are enhanced requirements to get an LDP if you had a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.15 or more at the time of the offense. In addition, the requirements to get an LDP are a bit different if you’re seeking to get an LDP due to a traffic ticket conviction unrelated to impaired driving. If you or a loved one are facing a DWI charge, traffic ticket, or license suspension, please contact one of our experienced criminal attorneys to help advocate for your rights.

Meet Our Legal Team

Contact Us

2115 Rexford Road, Suite 320 Charlotte NC 28211

PHONE: 704-333-9900

FAX: 704-358-0536

arrest attorney courtdate dui dwi felony jail judge lawyer license lost license misdemeanor prison

Doesn’t Mean You’re Guilty!

criminal-misdemeanors-felonies-charges-arrest-jail-embezzlement-sentencing-assault-drugs-appeals-courtdate-judge-nc-charlotte-top-best-lawyers-attorneys

When the police arrest you and ask you if you did it, you know that you did. You may not answer them right then — it’s best not to answer questions on your own, without a lawyer present — but you know that they’re right. You did it.

Does that mean you’re guilty? They’ll threaten you with fines, jail time and all sorts of related ramifications. Is there no way around that? Are they right that your life as you knew it is over, because you’re going to get convicted?

Absolutely not. There are plenty of examples of people who did exactly what they got accused of doing, but that did not mean they were actually guilty of a crime.

Self-defense

One of the best examples of this is if you acted in self-defense. You had a reason to take the steps that you did. Your own actions were justified. Essentially, legal experts note that self-defense gives you the “right to prevent suffering force or violence through the use of a sufficient level of counteracting force or violence.”

For instance, imagine that someone breaks into your house at night. You hear the noise, get a handgun out of your bedside table — you bought that gun legally years ago — and you go downstairs. There are two men in your living room. They’re both armed, clearly holding guns themselves. They’ve kicked the door open. One turns toward you as you come down the stairs.

You fire at both men. They run out of the house, but they’re quickly found by police because you wounded both of them. One passes away from his injuries.

Due to some miscommunication about what happened, you get arrested. While shooting someone is clearly illegal in most situations, you can argue that you feared for your life and you simply acted to protect yourself and your family. Self-defense means you’re not guilty of a crime, even though you did fire the shots just like the police claim.