Dan Smith talks with Legal Aid North Carolina about criminal record expunctions

Attorney Dan Smith was recently interviewed for a video detailing the services Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC) provides to clients looking for criminal record expunctions. The video features Vilma Suarez, managing attorney at LANC, impersonating Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg while interviewing Smith and is part of a series LANC is doing to help raise awareness around common legal issues.

Smith, who volunteers with LANC to provide pro bono legal counsel, spoke regarding expunction law in North Carolina and the process involved in obtaining an expunction. Smith regularly interviews LANC clients to determine their eligibility for an expunction. For those clients who qualify for an expunction, Smith will draft the necessary filings and petition the court.    

“The opportunities for an expunction in North Carolina are pretty limited; there’s generally three categories: one-time convictions, youthful offenses and dismissed charges. Those are the three big buckets into which most of the expunctions fit,” said Smith. “So the first thing I do as an attorney is get an understanding of what the criminal record is. And once I know what that is, I can determine as a matter of the law - of the statutes - whether there’s an expunction possible or not.”

The full video is available here.