Expungement Petition - Preparation Worksheet - North Carolina

IMPORTANT: ROUTE-SELECTION WORKSHEET — NOT A FILEABLE PETITION

Use the current North Carolina Judicial Branch form for the exact statutory route.
For the routes addressed here, the principal forms are:

• AOC-CR-297 — § 15A-145.5 nonviolent felony conviction(s);
• AOC-CR-298 — § 15A-145.5 nonviolent misdemeanor conviction(s);
• AOC-CR-287 — § 15A-146(a) or (a1) dismissed charge(s); and
• AOC-CR-288 — § 15A-146(a2) not guilty or not responsible.

If a youth, drug, prostitution, human-trafficking, identity-theft, pardon, or other
targeted statute may apply, stop and select the matching current form from the Judicial
Branch expunction page. Do not adapt this worksheet into a generic petition.

NORTH CAROLINA EXPUNCTION — PREPARATION WORKSHEET

1. ROUTE SELECTION

Select only after reviewing the exact disposition, offense citation and class, offense
date, age at offense, complete criminal history, and any prior expunction.

☐ § 15A-145.5 misdemeanor route / AOC-CR-298. One or more convictions meet
the current “nonviolent misdemeanor” definition.

☐ § 15A-145.5 felony route / AOC-CR-297. One to three convictions meet the
current “nonviolent felony” definition and all timing and grouping rules.

☐ § 15A-146(a) or (a1) dismissal route / AOC-CR-287. One or more charges were
dismissed.

☐ § 15A-146(a2) acquittal route / AOC-CR-288. A finding of not guilty or not
responsible was entered and all related charges reached final disposition.

☐ Different statute and form required: [STATUTE / FORM].

2. CASE AND PETITIONER INFORMATION

3. § 15A-145.5 EXCLUSION SCREEN

For a § 15A-145.5 petition, confirm that no requested offense falls within the current
statutory exclusions. The excluded categories include:

• Class A through G felonies and Class A1 misdemeanors;
• offenses with assault as an essential element;

• offenses requiring sex-offender registration, whether or not registration is still
  required;

• the sex-related and stalking citations listed in § 15A-145.5(a)(4);

• specified Chapter 90 felony offenses involving methamphetamine, heroin, or cocaine;
• the offenses and sentencing-enhancement categories listed in § 15A-145.5(a)(6)–(8);
• attempts to commit an offense described in § 15A-145.5(a)(1)–(8); and
• any offense involving impaired driving as defined in § 20-4.01(24a).

☐ Exact historical and current citations have been compared with every exclusion.

☐ No requested offense is excluded.

Do not use the former template's broader claim that every Chapter 20 offense or every
offense “involving a minor” is categorically barred under § 15A-145.5; apply the live
text and citation-specific exclusions.

4. § 15A-145.5 WAITING PERIOD

Select the current branch and calculate from the dates specified by the statute.

5. § 15A-145.5 PETITION REQUIREMENTS

Prepare the current AOC form and required supporting material.

☐ Petitioner's affidavit addresses good moral character and the applicable later-record
test.

☐ Two good-character affidavits are from people unrelated to petitioner and to each
other by blood or marriage.

☐ Petition states that it is a motion in the cause in the conviction case.

☐ AOC-approved authorization requests the SBI State and national criminal-history
check, warrant and pending-case search, and AOC confidential-expunction search.

☐ No restitution order or civil judgment representing restitution remains outstanding.

☐ Petition discloses additional § 15A-145.5 petitions submitted or intended in other
counties.

☐ Petition includes the acknowledgement concerning the effect of seeking one
misdemeanor before the seven-year branch or one felony before the twenty-year branch.

Later-record check

For misdemeanors, petitioner must have no other felony or misdemeanor conviction,
other than a traffic violation, during the applicable waiting period.

For one to three felonies, petitioner must have no misdemeanor conviction other than a
traffic violation during the five years before filing and no other felony conviction during
the applicable waiting period.

☐ No outstanding warrant, pending criminal case, indictment, disqualifying probable-
cause finding, or disqualifying bond or recognizance status exists.

6. MULTIPLE CONVICTIONS AND COUNTIES — § 15A-145.5

Multiple convictions from the same session of court are treated as one misdemeanor or
felony for this section.

For two or three felonies, the felony offenses must have been committed within the same
24-month period. If qualifying multiple convictions were entered in more than one
county, file a petition in each county within a 120-day period unless the court finds good
cause for a late filing.

7. SERVICE, OBJECTION, HEARING, AND FEE — § 15A-145.5

• Serve the petition on the district attorney of the court of conviction.

• The district attorney has 30 days to object; the court may allow an additional 30 days
  for good cause.

• The district attorney must use best efforts to contact any victim before the hearing.
  On request, a victim may attend and be heard.

• The court holds a hearing and applies the findings required by subsection (c2) for
  misdemeanors or subsection (c3) for felonies. Misdemeanor relief is mandatory when
  all findings are made; felony relief remains discretionary.

• The filing fee is $175, except for an indigent petitioner.

8. § 15A-146 DISMISSAL OR ACQUITTAL ROUTE

Petition route

☐ A sole charge was dismissed — § 15A-146(a).

☐ One or more of multiple charges was dismissed — § 15A-146(a1). If all charges were
dismissed, the court must order expunction; if another charge produced a conviction on
the dismissal date or remains unresolved, the court may expunge a dismissed charge.

☐ A finding of not guilty or not responsible was entered and all related criminal charges
have reached final disposition — § 15A-146(a2).

A court may grant a § 15A-146 petition without a hearing unless the section provides
otherwise. Standard dismissal and acquittal relief does not carry the ordinary record-
expunction cost, although a dismissal resulting from a deferred prosecution agreement
or diversion may carry the statutory fee specified in § 15A-146.

Automatic route — § 15A-146(a4)

The statute provides automatic expunction 180 to 210 days after final disposition when
all charges in the case were disposed on or after December 1, 2021 and all were dismissed
without leave, dismissed by the court, or resulted in not-guilty or not-responsible findings.
A case with a felony charge dismissed pursuant to a plea agreement is excluded.

☐ Court records have been checked after the statutory window.

☐ If the record remains, use the current petition form or obtain route-specific legal advice
rather than assuming automatic processing completed.

An arresting agency may retain investigative records after a § 15A-146 expunction.

9. EFFECT, RETENTION, AND LATER USE

Section 15A-153 generally protects a person who omits an expunged matter in response to
an inquiry and restricts employers and educational institutions from requiring disclosure
of known expunged matters. Specialized law-enforcement certification and disclosure-
statement exceptions remain.

Expunction does not mean that every government copy ceases to exist. Under § 15A-151,
AOC and clerks retain confidential files available only for specified purposes. Prosecutors
have electronic access under § 15A-151.5, and a conviction expunged on or after July 1,
2018 may be used for listed later-criminal-case purposes, including prior-record scoring,
habitual-offense treatment, and certain evidentiary uses.

After a petition-based order, the clerk supplies required notices under § 15A-150 to the
petitioner and relevant agencies, and SBI forwards the order to the FBI. Keep the copy of
the order supplied at the time of entry; later verification uses the AOC certificate process.

OFFICIAL SOURCES

• Current Article 5: https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/ByArticle/Chapter_15A/Article_5.html
• § 15A-145.5: https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_15A/GS_15A-145.5.html
• § 15A-146: https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_15A/GS_15A-146.html
• §§ 15A-150–151.5: https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_15A/GS_15A-150.html
• § 15A-153: https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_15A/GS_15A-153.html
• Judicial Branch expunction guidance and route-specific forms: https://www.nccourts.gov/help-topics/court-records/expunctions