Is this a Dismissal

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If you are from NC, it might be this:



WHAT IS A PJC?

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A Prayer for Judgment Continued, or PJC, is a finding of guilt without the entry of a judgment. It is usually obtained after a plea of guilty but sometimes a judge can enter a PJC after a not guilty plea in a trial after a finding of guilt. A PJC is not a conviction for most purposes but theoretically could be converted to a conviction at a later date in some circumstances (however this rarely happens except in cases of a PJC for a time period to be dismissed - see below.)

For automobile insurance purposes, one can have up to one PJC per household every three years that will not cause insurance premium increases. For driver's license purposes, a driver can have up to two PJCs within a five year period which will not result in driver's license points nor have any effect on the driving record of the person receiving the PJC (except that one of the two PJCs per five years is thereby used and will appear on one's DMV record). For criminal defendants in federal court, a prayer for judgment may be considered a conviction for the determination of the sentencing level upon conviction of a federal crime. For impeachment purposes–that is when a person is testifying in court and the opposite side wants to use a criminal charge conviction for purpose of impeaching their credibility–a PJC after a not guilty plea is not considered a conviction but a PJC after a guilty plea is considered a conviction.

A PJC to be "dismissed" is like a deferred prosecution. After a plea of guilty, the judge can make a finding of guilt without entering judgment and set a new court date, usually a year later, at which time if the defendant has met the conditions set out by the judge, then the charge can be dismissed. Thereafter, it could be expunged so long as the defendant had no prior expungement. The conditions for dismissal almost always include the requirement that the defendant violate no others during the period of the deferred prosecution. Sometimes the judge may order that the defendant complete community service or complete drug classes, etc.

In general, if our clients are concerned about whether or not they need to reveal a PJC on an application for employment or school or otherwise, we recommend that our clients always be truthful. We recommend that if the question is "Have you ever been convicted of a crime," and a charge resulted in a PJC, the answer is "no," but indicate a charge was resolved with a PJC and explain that you understand a PJC is not a conviction because there is no entry of judgment.

In short, a PJC is, except for limited purposes, a disposition of a criminal charge with no entry of judgment and thereby no conviction. However, there remains a slight chance that it could be converted to a conviction in the future if the state attempted to prey (sic) that a judgment be entered.



I won't give you the site address since I don't want to be advertising for a lawyer who doesn't know the difference between prey and pray.

:angel
 
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