{"id":14460,"date":"2025-01-10T16:59:45","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T21:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/?p=14460"},"modified":"2025-03-13T12:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T16:38:11","slug":"can-i-drop-the-charges-understanding-the-dismissal-of-charges-in-north-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/can-i-drop-the-charges-understanding-the-dismissal-of-charges-in-north-carolina\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I Drop the Charges? Understanding the Dismissal of Charges in North Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A common misconception in North Carolina criminal cases is that the person making an allegation, especially the alleged victim, can later decide to \u201cdrop the charges,&#8221; or &#8220;ask the Judge for a dismissal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It is understandable why someone might think that. In everyday life, we hear phrases like \u201cI won\u2019t   press charges.&#8221; In reality, once law enforcement has arrested someone or a warrant, criminal summons, or citation has been issued, the authority to proceed rests with the State\u2014not necessarily the witness or alleged victim.<\/p>\n<p>To be clear, prosecutors certainly consider what prosecuting witnesses have to say.\u00a0 Indeed, some charges, such as &#8220;crimes against the person&#8221; (like simple assault, assault on a female, offenses involving the impairment of the defendant, etc.) are subject to the North Carolina Victims&#8217; Right Act.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/can-i-drop-the-charges-understanding-the-dismissal-of-charges-in-north-carolina\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Can I Drop the Charges? Understanding the Dismissal of Charges in North Carolina\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A common misconception in North Carolina criminal cases is that the person making an allegation, especially the alleged victim, can later decide to \u201cdrop the charges,&#8221; or &#8220;ask the Judge for a dismissal.&#8221; It is understandable why someone might think that. In everyday life, we hear phrases like \u201cI won\u2019t press charges.&#8221; In reality, once [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[815,1417,1084,1075,1418],"class_list":["post-14460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-defense","tag-bill-powers-charlotte-criminal-defense-lawyer","tag-can-i-drop-the-charges","tag-can-i-get-my-charges-dismissed","tag-criminal-charges-in-north-carolina","tag-what-is-a-voluntary-dismissal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Can I Drop the Charges? Understanding the Dismissal of Charges in North Carolina<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Can I drop the Charges? Who decides whether to enter a voluntary dismissal? Charlotte Criminal Defense - Powers Law Firm\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/can-i-drop-the-charges-understanding-the-dismissal-of-charges-in-north-carolina\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Can I Drop the Charges? Understanding the Dismissal of Charges in North Carolina\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Can I drop the Charges? Who decides whether to enter a voluntary dismissal? Charlotte Criminal Defense - Powers Law Firm\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carolina Attorneys\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Can I Drop the Charges? Understanding the Dismissal of Charges in North Carolina","description":"Can I drop the Charges? Who decides whether to enter a voluntary dismissal? Charlotte Criminal Defense - Powers Law Firm","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/can-i-drop-the-charges-understanding-the-dismissal-of-charges-in-north-carolina\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Can I Drop the Charges? Understanding the Dismissal of Charges in North Carolina","twitter_description":"Can I drop the Charges? Who decides whether to enter a voluntary dismissal? Charlotte Criminal Defense - Powers Law Firm","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carolina Attorneys","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/can-i-drop-the-charges-understanding-the-dismissal-of-charges-in-north-carolina\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/can-i-drop-the-charges-understanding-the-dismissal-of-charges-in-north-carolina\/"},"author":{"name":"Carolina Attorneys","@id":"https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7b1994a08a51b357b94c69492e786113"},"headline":"Can I Drop the Charges? 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