The Wilmington Star recently ran a story about a report published by the Administrative Office of the Courts which shows that felony criminal charges, on average, have been resolved in the shortest amount of time amongst all of the 43 prosecutorial districts in North Carolina. The statewide median number of days for the resolution of felony cases was 181 days, within the 5th prosecutorial district, the median number days was 106. The district attorney’s office attributed the efficiency to the felony district court program run by Assistant District Attorney Holt Trotman. The program is informally known in the court house as felony Thursday, because the court is held on Thursdays.

The only dispositions which are possible are guilty pleas or dismissals. If cases are not resolved in district court, they are then sent to the Grand Jury for indictment and resolved in Superior Court. If a defendant is charged with a low level felony and has a clean criminal history, it is often possible to have those charges reduced to misdemeanors. In some cases deferred prosecutions can be arranged which would result ultimately in the dismissal of the case. In many cases, charges which were originally felonies which are dismissed through a deferred prosecution or outright dismissed, can be expunged and completely removed from one’s public criminal record, if the defendant has not had an expungement before. Criminal charges which were dismissed but for which there was not an expunction will remain on one’s criminal record. However the record will show that the charges were dismissed. Attorney David Collins of Collins Law Firm regularly appears in the felony district court program for New Hanover County which is located in Wilmington, NC. If you wish to call us for a consultation regarding any legal matters for which you need legal representation, feel free to call us at (910) 793-9000.

Labor Day is over, school started back and it is almost fall. We hope everybody had a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend. There was heavy traffic in most parts of the country and if you happened to get a speeding ticket or traffic citation in Southeast North Carolina, Collins Law Firm can help.

In most cases, so long as you have a clean driving records for speeding tickets at non-excessively high speeds, we can avoid court appearances and points on both your insurance and DMV record. For people with violations already on their record, there are still ways in most cases that points can be avoided. In some cases the defendant may have to go to driving school and in some cases a Prayer for Judgement Continued (PJC) maybe used. However, PJC is a valuable option to dispose of a traffic charge which should only be used when necessary.

For example, if there are multiple members of a household and one person uses a PJC, if another person in the household gets a traffic citation within the next three years and receives a PJC, insurance points will assessed for that violation.

Collins Law Firm has been representing people charged with traffic citations, speeding tickets, and other criminal charges in Southeast North Carolina for over ten years and we will be happy to discuss your situation with you by phone at no charge if you receive a traffic citation. Call the Collins Law Firm at (910) 793-9000.

Hurricane Earl has passed our area, and thankfully without inflicting much serious damage to our area.

Now we are heading into a busy Labor Day weekend. The American Automobile Association (AAA) is predicting a 10% increase in travelers on the road this year over last year. They predict that about 34.4 million people are likely to take trips of at least 50 miles.

That means that everyone needs to take greater precautions and plan for heavier traffic and slower travel paces. Law enforcement is likely to be stepped up this weekend and many people will likely receive speeding tickets or other traffic citations, and there are likely to be more accidents on the road than on non-holiday weekends. There are also likely to be impaired drivers and boaters who will receive DWI/DUI’s and BWI/BUI’s (boating while impaired/under the influence).

Anyone who receives a ticket or other criminal charges, or who is involved in an accident can call Collins Law Firm for a consultation about what we can do to help. We have been serving Southeastern North Carolina around the Wilmington, NC area for over ten years, representing people charged with traffic tickets or other criminal charges and people injured in traffic accidents or crashes.

Please be safe and have a wonderful weekend!

Collins Law Firm

Hurricane Earl is rapidly approaching coastal North Carolina, and many people in our area are likely to be affected by this storm.

Those in the affected areas may sustain damage to their property. If they have home owners insurance, some or all of the damages may be covered. However, in order to increase the chances of claims being paid accurately, you should document the damage. For example, if you live in a flood-prone area and are likely to incur flood damage, you should videotape the areas likely to be affected before the damage occurs to show the pre-damage state of your property. Likewise, if you are likely to sustain damage to the exterior of you dwelling, videotape or take pictures of the exterior to show what good shape it was in prior to the storm.

If you are in an area where there is a mandatory evacuation and you fail to evacuate, there may not be emergency services available to you for a period of  time. Therefore, if you are in an area with a mandatory evacuation you should heed the warnings and evacuate.

Collins Law Firm hopes that no one gets injured in this storm and that the property damage will only be slight or none at all.

For students, the summer is over and school is starting again. Many students will be starting college for the first time and it will be in a new environment with many challenges and temptations.

Underage drinking and use of controlled substances is common on most, if not all, college campuses.   For some law enforcement agencies, back to school means stepped-up enforcement of alcohol laws as well as general law enforcement.   This means that many students will be receiving criminal charges or citations for underage drinking or other related criminal activities including underage possession, underage consumption, and fake ID’s.   Some people do not consider these serious charges, but they are misdemeanor charges for which a conviction can mean a criminal record that can affect a person for the rest of their life with respect to getting jobs, renting apartments and otherwise.   Anyone charged with a crime should consult with an experienced criminal defense attorney.

Collins Law Firm regularly represents people who have been charged with alcohol law violations and other crimes such as possession of marijuana or other controlled substances.   In most cases for first time offenders, we are able to avoid a conviction, and court appearances are usually not necessary for defendants we represent on these type of charges.    However, in most cases, the defendant is required to perform a certain number of hours of volunteer service, or to participate in some type of educational program regarding alcohol and controlled substances, or both.

If you or someone you know has received a citation or criminal charge for an alcohol law violation or related charge, Collins Law Firm can help.  Call us at (910) 793-9000(910) 793-9000 for a free telephone consultation or make an appointment to come in for a consultation.

If you get a speeding ticket outside of North Carolina as a North Carolina licensed driver and just pay it off, it could cause your license here to be revoked.   Because of the Interstate Driver License Compact, the vast majority of states exchange information for moving convictions in motor vehicles.  If you get a speeding ticket in a member state for speeding more than 15 miles per hour over the speed limit, and the speed at which you are charged to have been speeding is 55 miles per hour or more, your license in North Carolina will very likely be revoked.   Similarly, if you are charged with speeding more than ten miles per hour over the speed limit in a 70 mile per hour zone or higher, your license in North Carolina will very likely be revoked.

Once the NC Department of Motor Vehicles gets notification of such a conviction, the NC licensed driver will be sent notification of the pending revocation and given notice of the right to have a hearing.  If the DMV hearing is not requested properly within the time frame allowed for such a request, the revocation will go into effect and it will no longer be possible to request a hearing.

If you have received such a notice, Collins Law Firm can help.   Give us a call at (910) 793-9000(910) 793-9000 to discuss the details.

We would like to offer some advice on what to do if you are stopped by a law enforcement officer while driving a motor vehicle.

If you are stopped by a law enforcement officer while driving, stop at the closest place where you can park and where it will be safe for the officer to approach your vehicle.  Then roll your window down, and put your hands on the steering wheel at the ten and two o’clock positions so the officer can see your hands.  This will help the officer see that you are unarmed and do not pose a threat.

You should always be polite and cooperative with law enforcement officers.  However, this does not mean that you must consent to a search or perform any roadside field sobriety tests if requested.  You also have a right to confer with an attorney even before your rights are read to you.

If you are suspected of impaired driving you may refuse the roadside field sobriety tests, but the refusal may be considered by a judge in a probable cause evaluation, though refusing the roadside tests will not cause a license revocation.  However, if you are placed under arrest for impaired driving and asked to submit to a chemical test of your breath or blood and refuse, your license can be revoked for that refusal.  The details of the revocations can be complicated.  For more information, call us any time.

Do not drive while impaired!  It is very dangerous and it is a very serious crime.  However, if you are stopped or arrested for impaired driving, you can call Collins Law Firm at (910) 793-9000(910) 793-9000 for legal advice and representation.

In this great recession, many people are trying to save money. Almost every day, we see people going to court without an attorney and making terrible mistakes which will affect them for the rest of their lives. They are being convicted of crimes and infractions which will stay on their records forever, and costing them money in fines, costs and other expenses; and for traffic offenses, causing insurance premium increases.

In most of these cases, if they had competent legal representation, these consequences very likely could have been avoided. For example, for most traffic charges which are moving convictions, a conviction will result in a thousand dollars or more insurance premium increases over a three year period, and these costs could have been avoided for a few hundred dollars in attorney fees.

If you have a pending court date in New Hanover, Brunswick, or Pender Counties, call Collins Law Firm at 910-793-9000910-793-9000 to discuss how we can help and what our fees would be.