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A dismissed charge or an old conviction does not disappear on its own. It sits inside background check databases and surfaces the moment you apply for a job, a lease, an adoption, or a professional license. You need to know whether North Carolina law will let you clear that record, not just how the charge looks on paper.
Ashley Cannon has practiced as a criminal defense lawyer in Statesville for nearly 25 years, four of them spent as an Assistant District Attorney in Iredell County and six other North Carolina counties. As a Statesville expungement lawyer, she reviews every case for what a judge and a district attorney will look for before you file, so you know your real chances before a petition ever goes to the clerk.
Tell us what is on your record and where the case ended, and we can explain whether it can be cleared and what comes next.
| NC Licensed Attorney Since 2001 | Former Assistant District Attorney | Nearly 25 Years In Practice | 100% Criminal Defense Focus |
North Carolina allows several different paths to clearing a record, and each one carries its own eligibility rules and its own waiting period. Our expungement attorney in Statesville handles petitions for:
Dismissed charges and not-guilty verdicts from December 1, 2021 onward usually clear on their own, without you filing anything, a few months after the case ends. Convictions work differently. Even after you’ve waited the required number of years, a misdemeanor or felony conviction never clears on its own, and you still have to file a petition and get a judge to sign an order.
We start every consultation by telling you which category your case falls into and what proof it will take to get there. If your record includes a mix of charges, some may qualify even when others do not, so it is worth asking rather than assuming nothing can be done.
A criminal record does not just affect one background check. It follows you through job applications, apartment applications, professional licensing boards, and even volunteer work at your children’s school.
Many employers and landlords in North Carolina run background checks through private companies. Those reports often pull years of case history, not just convictions. That means a dismissed charge can still cost you an opportunity if it was never formally cleared.
If your charge was dismissed or you were found not guilty, North Carolina law allows that record to be expunged under N.C.G.S. § 15A-146 (referred to as “expunction”), but many dismissals from before December 2021 still require a petition rather than clearing on their own.
Waiting for an old charge to fall off a background check on its own rarely works. Filing the right petition, under the right statute, is what clears it for good.
Waiting periods depend on what you are trying to clear. Under N.C.G.S. § 15A-145.5, the wait is 3 years for one nonviolent misdemeanor conviction, 7 years for more than one, and 10 years for a single nonviolent felony. Each clock starts on your conviction date or the day your sentence ends, whichever comes later.
Driving while impaired, most sex offenses, and Class A through G felonies cannot be expunged under this statute, regardless of how much time has passed.
This reflects North Carolina expunction law as of September 2026.
Petitions for cases handled here are filed with the Clerk of Superior Court at the Iredell County Hall of Justice, and a judge reviews the petition before signing an expunction order. Having reviewed these same petitions from the prosecution’s side, we know what a judge checks first: the exact conviction date, proof the sentence was completed, and whether anything else has shown up on your record since. Missing those details is one of the most common reasons a petition gets sent back rather than granted in Statesville.
Filing fees for most expunction petitions run under $200, plus court costs set by North Carolina law. Those costs are the same no matter which county you file in. Our fees depend on how many charges are involved and whether a hearing is required, and we go over the full cost during your consultation before we file anything.
You can file a petition yourself. But a single mistake — on the eligibility affidavit, the waiting-period math, or the filing itself — can get your petition denied. That can cost you years before you’re eligible to try again. Having someone who reviewed these petitions from the prosecution’s side lowers that risk considerably.
Once a judge signs the expunction order, state and local agencies must purge their records of the charge, and you can lawfully deny it happened on most job applications, school applications, and government forms. The state law that protects you covers employers, schools, and government agencies — it doesn’t specifically mention landlords, so you may not have the same protection when applying for housing. It does not disappear from federal databases automatically, and some licensing boards can still ask about it directly.
No. Impaired driving offenses are specifically excluded from expunction under North Carolina law, along with most sex offenses and Class A through G felonies. If your case included other charges alongside a DWI, those other charges may still qualify even though the DWI itself will not.
Clearing your record takes good timing and careful legal work. Making just one mistake on your petition can cause it to get turned down right away, which wastes your court fees and delays getting help for years. Contact Ashley Cannon, Attorney at Law, PLLC today to protect your rights, avoid costly mistakes, and take the first step toward a clean record.
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