Criminal & Traffic

Information about criminal cases in the North Carolina court system can be accessed by visiting a public, self-service terminal located at the Durham County clerk’s office. You can use the terminal to search for cases by defendant name, case number, or victim or witness name. Paper files for court cases may be accessed by visiting the clerk’s office. Copies may be made of court documents for a fee. Also, see the Remote Public Access Program to learn more about licensing for data access and extracts.

For eCourts: You may search online for case information and court records by name, case number, attorney, and more. Individuals performing background checks should use the county clerk's office to do How can I remove cases from my criminal record?

Driver’s licenses can be revoked for many reasons, including (among other examples) the following: a conviction for certain offenses, such as driving while impaired and excessive speeding; refusing to take a breath or blood test when arrested for driving while impaired; accumulating too many driver’s license points for traffic offenses; and failing to appear for, or failing to pay, a traffic ticket. You can read more about the revocation and restoration of driver’s licenses in the North Carolina Driver’s Handbook.

A limited driving privilege is a document signed by a judge that allows a person whose license has been suspended or revoked to drive for certain limited purposes, such as driving to and from work or driving for emergency medical care. If a judge has issued a limited driving privilege to you, you should take care to drive within the limitations the judge has set. If you violate the conditions of the privilege, you may be charged with driving while your license revoked.

Whether you are eligible to receive a limited driving privilege, and the procedures and fees that apply to the filing and issuance of the privilege, will depend on your particular situation, including the reason for your revocation. You can discuss your limited driving privilege eligibility with an attorney. For assistance in locating an attorney, see the Find an Attorney Help Topic.

Deferral and reduction options vary from district to district. You can consult an attorney about the options in your county, or discuss this with the prosecutor in court. As explained above, there also may be online options for having your charge dismissed or reduced. To determine the online options available to you, go to Citation Services.

A “PJC,” or “prayer for judgment continued,” is an option for disposing of the offense that is available in some traffic cases. A judge can grant a PJC instead of imposing a fine, though you will still be required to pay court costs. There are circumstances when a PJC still will be considered a conviction for the purposes of driver’s licenses and insurance points. An attorney can advise you about whether requesting a PJC may be beneficial in your case.

Jury trials are not available in District Court, where misdemeanor and infraction traffic tickets are initially heard. More serious traffic tickets are charged as misdemeanors, which can be appealed to Superior Court for a jury trial (or for a trial before a judge if you waive your right to a jury trial) if you are found guilty after a trial before a judge in District Court.

If you are convicted of a misdemeanor traffic ticket in District Court, you can appeal for a new trial in Superior Court. If you are convicted in Superior Court, you can appeal to the Court of Appeals. For more information on appeals.

Whether or not an offense is a crime or infraction depends on the statute (law) that was violated. You could look up the statute, or you can consult an attorney if the statute is not clear. However, one quick way to tell what kind of offense was charged is to look at the case number on your citation (ticket), warrant, or other charging document. The case number begins with the last two digits of the year in which you were charged. For instance, cases charged in 2018 will begin with “18.” If the next two characters are “CR,” you were charged with at least one criminal offense (for example, a misdemeanor). If the next two characters are “IF,” you were charged only with infractions in that case. Note that you might be charged with a crime and an infraction in the same case (in which case the next two letters will be CR because of the criminal offense), or you might have charges under multiple case numbers, some of which might be criminal and some of which might be infractions.

Law enforcement must seize a motor vehicle if any of the following is true:

• The driver is charged with an impaired driving offense and his or her driver’s license is revoked due to a prior impaired driving offense.
• The driver is charged with an impaired driving offense and he or she is not validly licensed and not covered by an automobile insurance policy.
• The driver is charged with felony speeding to elude arrest.
• The law enforcement officer must seize the vehicle under these circumstances, even if the driver is not the owner of the vehicle.

The vehicle will first be towed to a local storage facility. To find out where the vehicle is initially towed and stored, contact the law enforcement agency that arrested the driver, such as the State Highway Patrol, a local police department, or a county sheriff.

Contact the company that is storing the vehicle. You can retrieve your personal property if you can show proof to the company that you own the vehicle or the items. You cannot remove property that is attached to the vehicle.

Before the defendant’s trial, an owner or lienholder may be able to obtain the release of the vehicle. These release options are discussed later in this Help Topic. It also is possible that the vehicle will be sold before trial if the accumulated towing and storage charges reach a certain level. This is referred to as an “expedited sale," and also is discussed below. After the defendant’s trial, if the vehicle still is subject to the seizure law, a judge will release it to an owner or lienholder, or turn it over (“forfeit” it) to the local school board.

As noted above, the state contractors can sell a seized vehicle in an “expedited sale” before the driver’s trial if the towing and storage costs reach a certain level. Any net proceeds of the sale will be sent to the clerk of court’s office. The proceeds will take the place of the vehicle in the seizure process and will be subject to further orders of the court, just as the vehicle would have been.

If you own the vehicle and you were the person charged with impaired driving in the case, you can get the vehicle back only if one of the following circumstances applies:

You are not convicted of the impaired driving charge the led to the seizure (for example, the charge is dismissed or you are found not guilty).

At the time of the impaired driving offense that led to the seizure, your license was not revoked due to a prior impaired driving offense, and you have vehicle liability insurance. If you believe you fall into this category, you can file this petition with the clerk of the superior court’s office in the county where you were charged. You do not have to wait for your impaired driving case to be resolved before filing the petition. A prosecutor may consent to have the vehicle released to you. If not, you can ask the clerk of court to schedule a hearing. At the hearing, a judge will determine whether you are entitled to the release of the vehicle.

You can ask the court to release the vehicle to you temporarily using this form. The Clerk of Court must order the release of the vehicle to you before trial if 24 hours have passed since the seizure and if all other legal conditions are met, including posting with the court a bond equal to the fair market value of the vehicle, to ensure that the vehicle is returned in the same condition in which you received it if you are found guilty. The vehicle can be permanently released to you only if you are not convicted of felony speeding to elude arrest.

If you own the vehicle and you were not the driver who was charged in the case, you can get the vehicle back if the driver is found not guilty of the charge that led to the seizure, or if you can prove that you are an “innocent” owner. You are considered an “innocent” owner by law if any one of the following circumstances applies to you:

• If the vehicle was seized in an impaired driving case, you did not know and had no reason to know that the driver’s license was revoked, or you did not know and had no reason to know that the driver lacked a valid license and liability insurance.
• The driver drove the vehicle without your permission, and you have filed a police report for unauthorized use of the vehicle and agreed to prosecute the driver.
• Someone stole the vehicle from you, and you reported the theft of the vehicle.
• You are in the business of renting vehicles, and the driver was not listed as an authorized driver on the rental agreement.
• You are in the business of renting vehicles, and you did not know of the revocation of the driver’s license at the time the rental agreement was entered (for impaired driving seizures), or your rental agreement prohibits using the vehicle while committing a felony (for felony speeding to elude arrest seizures).
• You are in the business of leasing vehicles, you held legal title to the vehicle as a lessor at the time of seizure, and you had no actual knowledge of the revocation of the defendant’s driver’s license at the time you entered into the lease (for impaired driving seizures).
• You are in the business of leasing vehicles, and you held legal title to the vehicle as the lessor when the vehicle was seized (for felony speeding to elude arrest seizures).

For an impaired driving seizure, you can file this petition in the county where the driver was charged. For a felony speeding to elude seizure, you can file this petition in the county where the driver was charged. If you are filing the petition before the defendant’s trial, the clerk of the court will review your petition and issue a ruling. If you are filing the petition after the defendant’s trial and conviction, a judge will review and rule on your petition.

Yes, the clerk of the court may allow the temporary release of the vehicle before trial to an owner who was not the driver. In order for the clerk to release the vehicle to you temporarily, you are required to post a bond for the fair market value of the vehicle to ensure that you will return the vehicle in the same condition in which you received it if the court later decides that you are not entitled to the permanent release of the vehicle. There also are other conditions that apply to a temporary bond release, including that the vehicle must have been seized for at least 24 hours before the clerk issues the release order.

If you are a lienholder (in other words, a person who has loaned money with the vehicle serving as collateral for the loan), the vehicle may be released to you under certain circumstances. All of the following must apply:

• You held a perfected security interest in the vehicle at the time of the seizure,
• The obligor (in other words, the person owing on the loan) is in default,
• As a result of the default, you are entitled to possession of the vehicle,
• You agree to sell the vehicle and pay into the clerk’s office any proceeds beyond the amount due to you,
• You agree not to sell or transfer the vehicle to the person who was charged in the case or the owner of the vehicle, and
• The vehicle has not previously been released to you as the result of a prior seizure involving the same defendant or the same owner.
• You can file this petition for the release of the vehicle in impaired driving cases, and this petition in felony speeding to elude arrest cases. If the owner, the District Attorney’s office, and the school board attorney consent to your petition by signing the waiver of rights section on the form, the clerk will release the vehicle to you without a hearing. If these parties do not consent, there will be a hearing before a judge, and you will need to prove all of the circumstances listed above.

If the defendant is not convicted of the charge the led to the seizure, and the vehicle has not already been sold in an “expedited sale” or released, the court will permanently release the vehicle to the owner. If the defendant is convicted of the charge that led to the seizure, the court will hold a “forfeiture hearing” on the status of the vehicle. An owner or lienholder may request the release of the vehicle at this hearing. The judge will decide whether to release the vehicle to one of these parties or turn it over (“forfeit” it) to the school board.

If the vehicle has not yet been sold or released, and the defendant is found not guilty of the charge that led to the seizure, or the charge is dismissed, the judge will order the vehicle released to the owner. The form for this in an impaired driving case is available here. The form for this in a felony speeding to elude arrest case is available here.

If the driver is convicted in District Court and appeals the conviction to Superior Court, the Superior Court can consider the forfeiture issue anew. Otherwise, the forfeiture decision can be appealed to the Court of Appeals, which reviews cases for error based on the written record.

The North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles will instruct the insurance company to pay the insurance proceeds to the clerk’s office rather than to the policyholder. The proceeds will later be released or forfeited according to the same rules as the seized vehicle. There is a special procedure for vehicles that the insurance company has declared a total loss.

You can contact the company that is storing the vehicle to arrange a date and time to pick it up and find out what to bring with you. You should plan to bring a photo ID, a certified copy of the release order, and payment for the towing and storage costs.

Yes. You must pay all towing and storage costs to the company holding the vehicle before the company will release the vehicle to you. There are no exceptions to this requirement. If you were not the driver and the driver is convicted, the court may order the driver to repay you for these costs.

If you miss your court date, you have a couple of options depending on what type of case you have.

• Traffic cases (excluding felony and misdemeanor traffic charges)- you can reschedule your case over the phone once and by coming into the office once. You can safely miss a minor traffic case 2 times. The 3 rd time an order for arrest will be issued the NEXT business day. When the clerk reschedules your case, it will be for a Friday. Sometimes a judge will mark a case as last, in this instance, the clerk cannot reschedule the case no matter what. If you have an attorney, you must contact your attorney to reschedule the case. If nothing is done about missing your traffic case within 20 days, a $200 FTA (failure to appear) fee is added to the case. This notifies the DMV that you have an outstanding case in our county. The DMV will send a letter to you stating that you have until a certain date to take care of the case (get a judgment and pay any costs associated), It can take 24-48 hours for DMV to update their system. If you don't take care of the case before that date, the DMV will suspend your license until the case has been handled. If DMV suspends your license, you will owe the DMV a reinstatement fee.

   

• If you miss court for a matter you were arrested for before, or if the case is a misdemeanor or felony, an Order for Arrest will be issued the next business day. 20 days after that, an FTA will be added to the case. If you have an attorney, you will need to contact them. If you do not have an attorney, you may fill out ONE blue sheet per file. The blue sheet is a local form for Durham County, that requests the Judge strike your OFA and bond forfeiture if applicable and give you a new court date. The clerk's office prepares the blue sheets for the judge by putting the officers' next court date on the bottom of the blue sheet for the judge's consideration. It is strictly up to the judge whether to grant or deny a blue sheet.