I was found not guilty of a charge, but my record still shows the charge. What is going on?

Charlotte Mecklenburg DWI Attorney Brad Smith of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question: I was found not guilty of a charge, but my record still shows the charge. What is going on?

Question: “I was found not guilty of a charge, but my record still shows the charge. What is going on?”

Brad Smith:

Your record is still showing the charge because you have not expunged the charge from your record yet.

What an Expungement does is it removes the fingerprint that the offense ever even happened.

Your record will show the disposition of a criminal case until the date at which you expunge it from your record.

So, an expungement is something different than being found not guilty of an offense.

An Expungement is when you remove the charge entirely from your record.