Expunge or Seal a Florida Record:
The Fast 5 Eligibility Factors
A Fast Start To Determine If You Are Eligible
To Seal or Expunge Your Florida Record
There are numerous factors that can impact your eligibility to seal
or expunge your Florida criminal history record, if you plan to use the
regular seal or expungement process
in Sections 943.0585 and 943.059, Florida Statutes.
To help you get a fast start in determining your eligibility,
the Holmes Law Firm chose 5 factors which are less
complicated to review than some of the others.
 ALL BOXES CHECKED?
If you checked all of the 5 statements as true about you - Good News! -
you have cleared some big hurdles for eligibility!
ONE OR MORE BOXES NOT CHECKED?
If you are not sure if you have ever been adjudicated guilty of any
criminal offense, read more about "adjudicated guilty"
and about reviewing your overall criminal history to determine your eligibility.
If any of the above statements is not true about you, unfortunately,
with the possible exceptions noted below,
you are not eligible under Florida law to have your record sealed or
expunged at this time. Depending on the factor and your situation, you may
become eligible in the future.
If the first, third, or last statement is not true about you,
except as noted below, you cannot
seal or expunge any nonjudicial Florida
criminal history record using the regular seal and expungement process.
If you are currently serving probation for any of the charges related
to the record you want to seal, the law requires that you wait
to apply to seal your record until you have completed probation
or other court supervision for all charges related to record you want sealed.
You also have to meet all the other eligibility requirements.
(You might want to find out if you can terminate your probation early.)
If you had a conviction (adjudication of guilt) or an adjudication of delinquency
overturned by a court on appeal, and the final disposition of your case was
something other than "guilty" or "delinquent", you should review all the other factors
related to eligibility and consult with an attorney. Depending your
overall situation, you may find that you are eligible to seal or expunge
your record; but, you will need to consider other factors which might impact the
final review process in court.
The first factor in the above "Fast 5" checklist may not apply to you,
if you are trying to expunge a Florida record that you have had sealed for
10 years, based on statutory requirements. If this is your situation, you should review
the additional eligibility factors for expungement, because you must be eligible to expunge
the record under current legal requirements.
The first factor may also not apply to you, if you had a criminal history record
sealed or expunged under another provision of law, such as
administrative expungement or
juvenile diversion expungement.
If you are not eligible to seal or expunge your record at this time,
you may wish to discuss your situation with an attorney, to see if there is
anything that can be done to change your situation and ineligibility.
If the record you want to seal or expunge is a juvenile record, and
if you completed a prearrest or postarrest diversion program for that record,
you should review the
Juvenile Diversion Expungement
process. You might be eligible to use that process instead of the
regular seal and expungement process.
This would allow you to consider using the regular process for a different record,
if you should ever need to (and if you are otherwise eligible). Using the juvenile diversion
expungement process will not count against you as a "prior seal or expungement" in the regular
process.
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