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A tenant in North Carolina paid for her rent with bad checks. The landlord successfully evicted her, and then took the checks to the police. The woman is being prosecuted for four checks, four separate misdemeanor charges. Her court-appointed lawyer is trying to get the charge dismissed, but the landlord is refusing to agree to a dismissal unless she first pays him 100% of the money she owes. What should she do?
She should discuss her case and options with her lawyer. The question of whether or not the charge may be dismissed, and on what terms, is made by the prosecutor, not by the victim. If the prosecutor is willing to dismiss the charges if restitution is made, it makes sense to try to come up with the money -- it may be possible to get the prosecutor to agree to a deferred disposition through which the defendant can make payments toward restitution and, if she makes all required payments, gets the case dismissed. But she is facing a criminal charge, she could get a criminal conviction record that could haunt her many ways for the rest of her life, and the only way to address this charge and her circumstances is through her lawyer.