If you are accused of a felony in North Carolina, the impact on your personal rights and your future can be very significant. Those who are convicted of felonies are barred from holding certain jobs, for example, or, in many instances, from owning firearms. The felony is going to sit on your permanent record, so it will show up if a potential employer decides to do a background check, and the job may go to someone else.
However, this does not mean that you have no legal options. Your first recourse may be to fight the charges, but what if you don’t think that you can shake them? What if you are fairly certain that you are going to be convicted, and you’re not sure what to do?
One option can be to work to get your felony charges dropped down to misdemeanor charges. While you will still have charges on your record, a misdemeanor is not nearly as detrimental. Some misdemeanors can be taken off of your record. It may not have the same impact on your rights.
In some cases, you can fight to have the charges reduced while going through the trial by showing that felony charges do not fit the alleged crime. In other cases, you may be able to get a plea deal where you get lesser charges if you agree to plead guilty to them. Either way, you should not think that being accused of a felony means that you must accept those charges. You do have alternatives.
Make sure that you know about this and all other legal options before the case begins.