What are the long term effects of being convicted of a crime?

Charlotte Mecklenburg Criminal Defense Attorney Brad Smith of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question: What is an Expungement and how does it work in North Carolina?

Question: “What are the long term effects of being convicted of a crime?”

Brad Smith:

The long term effects of being convicted of a crime in this day and age is that any person can pretty much open a computer, click a mouse and pull up somebody’s criminal record.

I think the biggest difference in this business from when I started practicing almost ten years ago and today, is the fact that almost every single employer now has access to some computer program that can check an employee or potential employee’s criminal record.

So the long term effect isn’t necessarily what the government can do. You have to be in pretty severe or pretty serious trouble with the law to find yourself in a situation where you are going to go to jail for a lengthy period of time.

I think the biggest way in which criminal convictions affect people today is that it’s a tattoo that they get on their body that they cannot remove.

A criminal conviction is something that you will carry around for a lengthy period of time, and it can hurt your professional development, it can hurt your ability to get a job, and I think that’s the biggest thing I see with clients today.

Their biggest concern isn’t necessarily the probation that they or going to receive or the judgment, or the fine, or the court costs. It’s more the lasting impact it is going to have on their professional development.