NC S667

Individuals convicted of no more than three Class H or I felonies and any misdemeanors may petition for a Certificate of Relief to relieve collateral consequences from criminal convictions.

Petitioner must establish by preponderance of evidence that 12 months have passed since sentence completion, they are engaged in lawful activity or have lawful support, they complied with all sentence requirements, they are not in violation of criminal sentence terms, no criminal charges are pending, and granting relief poses no unreasonable risk to public safety.

Courts must designate a specific judge, clerk, or magistrate as a Certificate of Relief point of contact for each district, who will be trained on using a shared database maintained by the Administrative Office of the Courts to track granted certificates.

District attorney notification period for Certificate of Relief hearings increases from three weeks to 30 days, and courts may revoke certificates upon finding a subsequent felony or misdemeanor conviction in another jurisdiction.

Effective date is December 1, 2021, for most provisions and applies to petitions filed on or after that date, with the database development and maintenance provisions effective immediately upon enactment.