To learn more about misdemeanors and felonies, consult the pages listed below. Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship.
What Are Misdemeanors? What Are Felonies? The Effects of Criminal Convictions People that commit crimes and are convicted or either misdemeanors or felonies after the age of eighteen will receive a permanent mark on their record. Search Search. Submit a Law Firm Client Review. Click Here to Pay Online. Misdemeanors Misdemeanors are not nearly as serious as a felony in North Carolina, but that does not mean they are insignificant criminal offense.
Examples of Class 3 misdemeanor offenses include disorderly conduct and possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana. Class A1: This is the most serious type of misdemeanor, for which the penalty is up to days in jail and a discretionary fine. Class A1 misdemeanors include sexual battery and assault with a deadly weapon. Raleigh Criminal Defense Lawyers If you are facing criminal charges, now is the time to discuss your case with a skilled and experienced criminal defense attorney. Thus, these states have class B or level 2 misdemeanors.
In these states, legislators did not use the terms "class" or "level," but they did group their misdemeanor crimes by severity: Georgia misdemeanors and misdemeanors of a high and aggravated nature , Hawaii petty misdemeanor and misdemeanor , Iowa aggravated, serious, or simple , Minnesota gross misdemeanor, misdemeanor, or petty misdemeanor , Nevada gross misdemeanor or misdemeanor , New Jersey disorderly persons offense or petty disorderly persons offense , New Mexico petty misdemeanor or misdemeanor , Rhode Island misdemeanor or petty misdemeanor , and Washington gross misdemeanor or misdemeanor.
As explained above, a crime is a misdemeanor or a felony by virtue of the length of its sentence—sentences of a year or more generally make a crime a felony, while sentences of less than a year indicate that the offense is a misdemeanor. Most laws include the sentence for the crime, so by learning the sentence, you know whether the crime is a misdemeanor or felony.
But a few states, including Arizona, California, and Indiana, have created a group of crimes that can be punished either by time in state prison or in the county jail. Under the California scheme, the characterization of the crime depends on the ultimate punishment meted out.
Such crimes " wobble " between misdemeanor and felony; when the defendant is sentenced to state prison, the offense is a felony, but when the sentence is to a county jail, it becomes a misdemeanor.
In California, all such offenses start out as presumed felonies, unless the prosecutor charges them as misdemeanors. California judges can reduce a felony conviction for a wobbler offense to a misdemeanor at sentencing; in some states, courts can reduce the conviction to a misdemeanor when the defendant successfully completes probation. For the most part, prosecutors have the discretion to charge a particular offense as they deem appropriate, and sometimes that involves choosing to file misdemeanor charges instead of felony charges, or vice versa.
For example, someone who gets into a fight and injures another person can be charged with assault. The state's law may differentiate misdemeanor assaults from felony assaults based on, among other factors, the extent of the victim's injuries.
At CDH Law, our team of dedicated criminal defense attorneys is here to fight for you and your future. Contact us today. Carden III, Esq. Matthew D. Dotzler, Esq. David Hammond, Esq. Brian Nelson Tedd, Esq. Tricia M. Dorn, Esq. Investigators Investigator Curtis A.
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