Sealing or Expunging Your Florida Criminal Record: Who Qualifies

By Joshua C. Miller, Esq. · Green Bench Law, PLLC · Informational only — not legal advice

In Florida, an arrest record is public — even if the charges were dropped, even if you were never convicted. It shows up in background checks for jobs, apartments, and professional licenses, and it never falls off on its own. The Legislature created two remedies: sealing and expunction. They're related, often confused, and available only to people who meet strict eligibility rules.

Sealing vs. expunction: what's the difference?

• Sealing makes the record confidential. It still exists, but it's removed from public view; most employers and landlords cannot see it, and government access is limited to specific agencies.
• Expunction goes further: the court and agency records are physically destroyed, with FDLE retaining only a confidential copy. For nearly all purposes, the incident is treated as if it never happened.

With either remedy, you may generally lawfully deny the arrest in most settings — with statutory exceptions, such as applying for certain licenses, working with children or vulnerable populations, or seeking admission to the Bar.

Which one applies to you?

Broadly speaking, the path depends on how your case ended:

• Expunction is generally for cases that were never filed, dismissed, or dropped (no-information, nolle prosequi, dismissal) — or for acquittals in some circumstances.
• Sealing is generally for cases that ended in a withhold of adjudication — you entered a plea or were found guilty, but the judge withheld a formal conviction.

A record that has been sealed for 10 years can often then be expunged — a two-step path to full relief for withhold cases.

The eligibility gates

This is where most applications fail, so be candid with yourself (and your lawyer) about your full history:

1. No prior convictions. An adjudication of guilt for any criminal offense — anywhere, anytime — is generally disqualifying.
2. One-time relief. Florida allows a person to seal or expunge only one arrest record in a lifetime (with narrow exceptions for related incidents).
3. No adjudication in the case you want sealed. If you were adjudicated guilty of the charge — even a misdemeanor — that case cannot be sealed.
4. The charge isn't on the disqualified list. A long statutory list of offenses cannot be sealed even with a withhold — including many violent, domestic violence-related, and sex offenses, among others.
5. No open cases. You can't be under court supervision or have pending charges.

How the process actually works

It's a two-stage process that typically takes several months end to end:

1. FDLE Certificate of Eligibility. You apply to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement with fingerprints, a certified disposition, the application fee, and — for expunctions — a statement from the state attorney. FDLE reviews your full history and issues (or denies) a certificate.
2. Petition to the court. Certificate in hand, you file a petition and sworn affidavit in the court where the case was handled. The state attorney can object; some judges grant on the papers, others set a hearing. Relief is ultimately discretionary, so a clean, well-supported petition matters.

One honest caution: private background-check companies sometimes retain stale data scraped before a record was sealed. Part of finishing the job is sending demand letters to data brokers still publishing the old record — a step many people don't know to take.