Florida Expungement: Eligibility, Process, and Alternative Paths

A Florida expungement orders criminal justice agencies to destroy the record of an arrest or charge, and you qualify only if the case ended without any finding of guilt, you have no prior criminal convictions anywhere, and you have never had a Florida record sealed or expunged before. The process runs in two stages: first you apply to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) for a Certificate of Eligibility, then you file a petition in the county where the case was handled.

Who Qualifies for Expungement

Expungement is reserved for cases that resolved in your favor. The charges were dropped, the prosecutor filed a nolle prosequi, a judge dismissed the case, a jury acquitted you, or no charges were ever filed in the first place.¹ If you pleaded guilty or no contest and the court withheld adjudication, that disposition is eligible for sealing, not expungement.

Beyond the case outcome, every one of these must be true:

You have never been adjudicated guilty of any criminal offense in Florida or elsewhere, and have never been adjudicated delinquent for any felony or for certain listed misdemeanors (including assault, battery, carrying a concealed weapon, petit theft, child neglect, and cruelty to animals).
You have never had a Florida record sealed or expunged before.
You are not currently on probation or any other court supervision from the arrest you want to clear.
The offense is not on Florida’s list of charges that can never be sealed or expunged.

The “no prior convictions” rule catches more people than any other. FDLE runs a nationwide background check, and any conviction, including out-of-state offenses, traffic crimes, and municipal ordinance violations, will trigger a denial.²

Offenses That Can Never Be Expunged

Florida permanently bars certain offenses from relief when the case ended in an adjudication of guilt or a withhold. The list in Section 943.0584 covers the most serious violent and sexual offenses, including:³

Homicide and manslaughter
Sexual battery and other Chapter 794 offenses
Aggravated assault
Kidnapping and false imprisonment
Robbery and carjacking
Child abuse and neglect
Domestic violence offenses

The full list on the FDLE site is longer. One important nuance: the bar applies to the offense you are trying to clear, not to unrelated arrests. If you were arrested for one of these offenses but the charges were later dropped or dismissed, you can still petition to expunge that arrest record, because no adjudication occurred.¹

Expungement or Sealing: Which One Applies

The two remedies answer different situations. Sealing makes a record confidential; expungement destroys it. Sealing is for people whose cases ended with the court withholding adjudication of guilt. Expungement is for people whose cases ended without any finding of guilt at all.⁴

With a sealing order, judges, criminal justice agencies, your own attorney, and specific licensing entities named in the statute can still see the record. With an expungement order, every agency holding the record must physically destroy or obliterate it. The one exception is FDLE itself, which keeps a confidential copy that no one can access without a court order, mainly to prevent anyone from using the remedy twice.¹

Step One: The Certificate of Eligibility

You cannot ask a court to expunge anything until FDLE confirms you qualify. The Certificate of Eligibility is the gatekeeping document.² Your application package has to include:

A full set of fingerprints taken by an authorized law enforcement agency
A certified copy of the final disposition from the clerk of court in the county where the case was resolved
The application itself, signed in front of a notary public or deputy clerk
A nonrefundable $75 payment by money order, cashier’s check, or personal check made out to FDLE
For expungement specifically, Section B of the application completed by the State Attorney or Statewide Prosecutor before you submit it

That last requirement is what distinguishes an expungement application from a sealing application at the FDLE stage.⁵

FDLE currently takes over 12 weeks to process applications and handles them in the order received. If you qualify, the certificate arrives by certified mail. If you do not, you get a letter explaining the reason for denial.²

Step Two: Filing the Court Petition

Once the certificate is in hand, you file a petition to expunge with the clerk of court in the county where the arrest or charge originated. The filing package includes the petition, a sworn affidavit, the Certificate of Eligibility, and a proposed order ready for the judge’s signature.

Copies then have to be served on the State Attorney (or Statewide Prosecutor) and the arresting agency. Neither becomes a party to the case, but both can respond or object.¹ When there is no objection and the paperwork is correct, many judges grant these petitions without scheduling a hearing. If the State Attorney objects, the court will set one.

What It Costs

The guaranteed costs are the $75 FDLE fee, the clerk’s charge for a certified disposition, and whatever your county charges to file the petition. Court filing fees vary by county, so confirm the exact amount with your local clerk. All in, handling the process yourself typically runs somewhere between $150 and $300.⁵

Attorneys who handle expungements as flat-fee work generally charge between $750 and $5,000, with most straightforward cases closer to the low end. If your eligibility is clear and the case had a clean dismissal, the paperwork is manageable on your own. Complicated fact patterns or borderline eligibility are where a lawyer earns the fee.

What an Expungement Order Actually Does

When the judge signs the order, the clerk sends it to every agency holding the record. Those agencies must destroy their copies, keeping only a notation that they complied with the order.¹ The arrest should also stop showing up on standard commercial background checks, though you may need to follow up with private screening companies that maintain their own databases.

The practical payoff is the legal right to deny the arrest. On most job applications, rental applications, and similar inquiries from private parties, you can lawfully state that you were never arrested or charged with the offense.⁴

When You Still Have to Disclose

Florida law requires you to acknowledge the expunged record when:

Applying for a job with any criminal justice agency, including police departments, corrections, and prosecutors’ offices
Seeking admission to The Florida Bar
Seeking employment, licensing, or a contract with the Department of Children and Families, Department of Health, Department of Elderly Affairs, Agency for Persons with Disabilities, or Department of Juvenile Justice, particularly in positions involving direct contact with children, the elderly, or people with disabilities
Seeking employment or licensing through the Department of Education, school districts, charter schools, or any entity licensing child care facilities
Applying for an insurance agent license through the Department of Financial Services
Seeking appointment as a guardian
Applying for a concealed weapon or firearm license
Appearing as a defendant in a criminal prosecution

These carve-outs exist because the legislature decided certain positions of trust require the full history, even when the case ended favorably.¹

Alternative Expungement Paths

The standard process covers most situations, but Florida provides several specialized routes with their own rules.

Administrative Expunction for Wrongful Arrests

If you were arrested by mistake or in a way contrary to law, the arresting agency itself can apply directly to FDLE to clear the record. You can also apply, but you need written endorsement from either the head of the arresting agency or the State Attorney for the circuit where the arrest occurred.⁶ This path only works for nonjudicial records — arrests where no court case was initiated. If charges were filed, you have to go through the regular court process.

Lawful Self-Defense Expungement

If charges were never filed, or were dismissed because the prosecutor or court found you acted in lawful self-defense under Chapter 776 (including Stand Your Ground), Section 943.0578 opens a separate expungement track. You still need the $75 fee, fingerprints, a certified disposition, and a certified statement from the State Attorney, but FDLE processes it on its own track.⁷

Human Trafficking Victim Expungement

Section 943.0583 gives trafficking victims the broadest relief in Florida law. A victim can petition to expunge any arrest, charge, or even a conviction for offenses committed as part of the trafficking scheme or at a trafficker’s direction. This path does not require a Certificate of Eligibility. The process is entirely judicial: you file in court, and if the judge grants the petition, the clerk forwards the order to FDLE.⁸

Early Juvenile Expunction

A person between 18 and 21 can apply to expunge a nonjudicial juvenile arrest record. The applicant must not have been charged with or found to have committed any criminal offense within the five years before applying, and the offense being expunged must have occurred before age 18. The application goes to FDLE rather than court, costs $75, and requires approval from the State Attorney in each circuit where an eligible offense occurred. If the application is denied, the record is still automatically expunged when the person turns 21, assuming they meet the eligibility criteria at that point.⁹

Expunging a Previously Sealed Record

Florida’s one-time rule normally means you cannot use sealing or expungement twice. The statute carves out one exception: once a record has been sealed for at least 10 years, you can petition to expunge that same record.¹ The 10-year wait is only required when sealing was the correct starting point, meaning your case ended in a withhold of adjudication. If no plea was entered or all charges were dismissed, you could have gone straight to expungement, and the law does not penalize you for having sealed first.

Federal and Immigration Limits

A Florida expungement order binds state and local agencies. It has no effect on federal records or federal agencies. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Homeland Security can all access expunged records in immigration proceedings, and the Board of Immigration Appeals does not treat a state expungement as eliminating a conviction for immigration purposes.²

If you are not a U.S. citizen and have any criminal history, expunging the Florida record will not protect you during visa applications, green card proceedings, or removal hearings. The facts of the case remain in federal databases regardless of what happens at the state level. Talk to an immigration attorney before assuming a Florida expungement solves an immigration problem.

1
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 943.0585 – Court-Ordered Expunction of Criminal History Records
2
Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Seal and Expunge FAQ
3
Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Reasons for Denial
4
Justia Law. Florida Code 943.059 – Court-Ordered Sealing of Criminal History Records
5
Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Applying for a Certificate of Eligibility for Court-Ordered Sealing or Expungement
6
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 943.0581 – Administrative Expunction for Arrests Made Contrary to Law or by Mistake
7
Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Applying for Lawful Self-Defense Expungement
8
Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Human Trafficking Expungement
9
Florida Senate. Florida Code 943.0515 – Retention of Criminal History Records of Minors