Asking for Fee Relief While New North Carolina Charges Are Pending

Attorney Answer

No — asking for help with fines and asking for a court-appointed lawyer will not make you look bad. Those requests are about your finances, not about guilt, and judges see them every day. In my judgment as a lawyer, the bigger risk to how you are perceived is an unresolved failure to comply sitting on your record while new charges are pending.

You are describing two different requests, governed by different provisions. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-450 defines an indigent person as one financially unable to secure legal representation and to provide the other necessary expenses of representation, makes it the State's responsibility to provide counsel and those expenses to a person found indigent, and permits the court to determine or redetermine indigency at any stage of the proceeding. That is the appointed-counsel statute. Relief from court costs and fines is separate: N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-304(a) allows waiver of costs on written findings of just cause after notice to the affected agencies, and N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1363 governs remission — a defendant required to pay a fine or costs may petition the sentencing court at any time to remit or revoke the fine or costs, or any unpaid portion, and the court may grant it if the circumstances that warranted the amount no longer exist, if payment would be unjust, or if the proper administration of justice requires it. Ask for the right one in the right case, or you will be told no for the wrong reason.

One correction about your exposure. Under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-28, driving while licence revoked is a Class 3 misdemeanour under subsection (a). Under subsection (a1), where the revocation is an impaired-driving revocation as defined in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-28.2(a), it is a Class 1 misdemeanour and the licence is revoked for an additional year on a first offence, two years on a second, and permanently on a third or subsequent. Subsection (a3) separately addresses driving after notification or failure to appear. The escalation for repeat offences is a longer — ultimately permanent — licence revocation, not a felony. So the felony you are worried about is far more likely the pending Schedule I possession charge than the driving counts, and that is where your attention belongs.

What you can do

1. Ask for appointed counsel at your first appearance in each pending case, and complete the affidavit of indigency. Under § 7A-450 the court can determine or redetermine indigency at any stage, so an earlier denial is not permanent. 2. Deal with the failure to comply first. Get it calendared, appear, and ask the court to strike it and set a payment plan you can actually meet. 3. In that same appearance, ask about waiver of costs under § 7A-304(a) — and expect it to require notice to affected agencies and written findings, so ask the clerk what notice is needed rather than assuming it happens at the counter. 4. For amounts already imposed, ask your lawyer about a petition for remission under § 15A-1363, which you may file with the sentencing court at any time. Do not wait until you have missed a payment to raise it. 5. Stop driving until the licence issue is resolved. Every additional count under § 20-28(a1) adds another revocation period, and that is the part that compounds fastest. 6. Treat the Schedule I charge as the priority. That is your felony exposure, and it should shape the order in which you spend money and effort.