Seal or Expunge Record
Eligibility
Crimes and Arrests not eligible to Seal or Expunge
Sealing Criminal Record
Expunging Criminal Record
Frequent Questions
Glossary of Legal Terms

Sealing Your Florida Criminal History Record

Once your criminal history record gets sealed, the court will order that your criminal record, including police, state attorney and court records related to your arrest or charge and any information about that incident be physically sealed and stored away.  The order to seal cover courts in Florida, criminal justice agencies in Florida, and criminal records contained in the file of any court or agency who has a copy of your criminal record, including the FBI and all other law-enforcement agencies that possess such records. Sealed criminal history records cannot be accessed by the general public and most importantly DO NOT APPEAR if a criminal background check is conducted. After 10 years of having your record sealed, you may ask the Court to expunge (physically destroy) the record.

                        

What Happens When Your Criminal Record is Sealed

Once your criminal history record is sealed, it is confidential and unavailable to the general public, future employers, or other inquiring entities and all of the proceedings in it are treated as if they never occurred.  Your information regarding the charge is removed from the Criminal Information Justice System (CJIS) and the record won't show up in any background check relating to you. No one without a court order may access your record. Courts and criminal justice agencies place an identifying mark on sealed records to indicate that the records are sealed and not to be shown to the public. Electronic records are flagged so that they are not revealed to the public.

 

Court and law enforcement personnel can be charged with a first degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail if they disclose the existence of a sealed criminal record.

 

Sealing of a Criminal Record Has Four Effects:

1. The criminal record is sealed and is available only to the person who is the subject of the incident, his or her attorney or criminal justice agencies for criminal justice purposes.
2. Right to deny-you may lawfully deny or fail to acknowledge the sealed arrest or criminal incident. This includes job applications and interviews.
3. The individual does not commit perjury or make a false statement by failing to acknowledge the expunged criminal incident.
4. Information relating to the sealed criminal incident is confidential.

 

NOTE: See LIMITED EXCEPTIONS (In certain circumstances the sealed criminal activity is not confidential, and the individual may not lawfully deny or fail to acknowledge the sealed incident)

 

Contact Orlando and Kissimmee criminal defense attorneys Corzo & Kohrs to SEAL OR EXPUNGE YOUR CRIMINAL RECORD.