North Carolina Criminal Records

North Carolina runs its courts as one state system, which makes it one of the few states where a single search covers every county, and the state sells that data in bulk to the companies whose "nationwide" searches include it. The court system's own eCourts portal now searches case information statewide for free, the clerk of superior court in each of the 100 counties certifies a criminal record check, and the arrest records are public under a statute that spells out exactly what a police agency must release. This page gives the North Carolina rule and the North Carolina search for each record, with government sources only.

The North Carolina Judicial Branch's services page lets anyone "search and view case information and documents (public)" through the eCourts Portal, which the branch has rolled out county by county until it covers the state, and "search for the date, time, and location of a court appearance, citation number, and more." The same branch sells the underlying data: its Remote Public Access program "offers access to criminal and civil court data in all 100 North Carolina counties" to licensees who "may obtain real-time access or bulk data extracts," and its extract page tells them "it is the licensee's responsibility to build its own automated system from the bulk data provided." A background check company's North Carolina record is usually one of those extracts, on the date it was pulled, and the criminal records page explains what a copy misses.

The certified version is the clerk's. The Judicial Branch's criminal background check page explains that a certified criminal record check is obtained from the clerk of superior court in any county, for a statutory fee, searching the same statewide system, and that ongoing access is through the Remote Public Access program. That clerk's certificate is what a North Carolina employer, landlord or court accepts as proof.

North Carolina's fingerprint repository is kept by the State Bureau of Investigation, and, as in most states, the public does not search it. Employers, licensing boards and agencies authorized by statute obtain fingerprint checks through the Bureau, a person may obtain their own record by fingerprint through a local law enforcement agency, and everyone else uses the court system's records above, which in North Carolina are the same convictions the Bureau holds, minus the fingerprint match.

North Carolina expunges rather than seals, under Article 5 of Chapter 15A of the General Statutes, and the Second Chance Act of 2020 widened it: charges that were dismissed or ended in acquittal are expunged on petition without a waiting period, and since 2021 the clerks have been expunging many dismissed charges automatically; a first nonviolent misdemeanor conviction may be expunged after five years and a first nonviolent felony after ten, with more than one nonviolent misdemeanor after seven years; and juvenile and under-eighteen offenses have their own routes. An expunged North Carolina case is removed from the statewide system and the clerk's file, and a person may deny it, but a Remote Public Access extract sold before the order keeps it until the federal rule on complete and up to date public records forces the correction, which is why the statute also requires the licensees to purge expunged cases from their data.

North Carolina's public records law answers the arrest question in one section. G.S. 132-1.4 begins by closing the investigative file: "records of criminal investigations conducted by public law enforcement agencies, records of criminal intelligence information compiled by public law enforcement agencies ... are not public records." It then opens the arrest: the time, date, location and nature of an arrest, the name, sex, age, address, employment and alleged violation of law of the person arrested, the circumstances of the arrest, and the contents of 911 calls and radio communications are public records that must be released, and "the use of a public record in connection with a criminal investigation or the gathering of criminal intelligence shall not affect its status as a public record." Who is in custody is posted by the sheriffs, the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's inmate search for Charlotte among them, and by the Department of Adult Correction's offender search, which gives "up-to-date information on North Carolina state prison offenders, probationers and parolees" and "contains historical" records as well. The arrest records page covers the rest.

A North Carolina judgment is docketed with the clerk of superior court, and under G.S. 1-234 "the judgment is a lien on the real property in the county where the same is docketed of every person against whom any such judgment is rendered, and which he has at the time of the docketing thereof in the county in which such real property is situated, or which he acquires at any time thereafter, for 10 years from the date of the entry of the judgment." After ten years the lien is gone, and a creditor who wants more time sues on the judgment before it expires. The court records page covers where the civil judgments are searched.

North Carolina is divided into three federal judicial districts under 28 U.S.C. 113. The Eastern District covers the counties of Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Currituck, Dare, Duplin, Edgecombe, Franklin, Gates, Granville, Greene, Halifax, Harnett, Hertford, Hyde, Johnston, Jones, Lenoir, Martin, Nash, New Hanover, Northampton, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Pender, Perquimans, Pitt, Robeson, Sampson, Tyrrell, Vance, Wake, Warren, Washington, Wayne and Wilson, plus the portions of Hoke, Moore, Scotland and Richmond counties that make up Fort Bragg and Camp Mackall and the portion of Durham County that holds the federal correctional institution at Butner, with court held at Elizabeth City, Fayetteville, Greenville, New Bern, Raleigh, Wilmington and Wilson. The Middle District covers Alamance, Cabarrus, Caswell, Chatham, Davidson, Davie, Durham, Forsyth, Guilford, Hoke, Lee, Montgomery, Moore, Orange, Person, Randolph, Richmond, Rockingham, Rowan, Scotland, Stanly, Stokes, Surry and Yadkin, outside those federal reservations, with court held at Durham, Greensboro and Winston-Salem. The Western District covers Alexander, Alleghany, Anson, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Cherokee, Clay, Cleveland, Gaston, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Iredell, Jackson, Lincoln, McDowell, Macon, Madison, Mecklenburg, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania, Union, Watauga, Wilkes and Yancey, with court held at Asheville, Bryson City, Charlotte, Shelby and Statesville. A federal case from any North Carolina county is on one of those three dockets and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person has a North Carolina conviction: the eCourts Portal answers it statewide, free, by name, and the clerk of superior court certifies the answer for a fee.

Whether a person is in custody now: the county sheriff's search answers it, and the Department of Adult Correction answers it for state prison, probation and parole.

Whether an old case can still be found: an expunged case is gone from the state system and the clerk, a judgment lien lapses at ten years, and a bulk extract that predates an expunction is reached through the licensee's purge duty and the federal rule.