What Crimes Can and Cannot Be Expunged in Florida

In Florida, a criminal charge can generally be expunged if the case ended without a guilty finding — meaning charges were dropped, dismissed, never filed, nolle prossed, or you were acquitted at trial. A fixed list of serious offenses, however, cannot be expunged or even sealed no matter how the case turned out. Understanding what crimes can and cannot be expunged in Florida starts with two separate questions: how did the case end, and what was the underlying charge?

Case Outcomes That Qualify for Expungement

Expungement, which destroys the record, is reserved for cases that did not result in a conviction. The qualifying outcomes are:¹

Charges dropped or dismissed by the prosecutor or court.
Charges never formally filed after arrest (the state attorney declined to proceed).
Nolle prosequi — the prosecutor abandoned the case.
A not-guilty verdict from a judge or jury.
Charges that started as a felony but were reduced and then dismissed. The final dismissal is what counts.

Cases where the judge withheld adjudication after probation or a diversion program are handled differently. Those records are not directly expungable, but they are eligible for sealing under Florida Statute 943.059.² Once a record has been sealed for at least 10 years, you can petition to convert it to a full expungement.¹

Crimes That Cannot Be Expunged or Sealed

Florida bars a specific category of offenses from both sealing and expungement. If the arrest involved any of these charges, no court can order the record destroyed or hidden — even if the case was dismissed, even if you were acquitted, and even if you have an otherwise clean history. The disqualified offenses include:³

Violent crimes: murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, felony battery, domestic battery by strangulation, and robbery.
Sexual offenses: sexual battery (all offenses under chapter 794), lewd or lascivious acts on a person under 16, sexual misconduct, and sexual performance by a child.
Domestic violence: assault or battery between family or household members.
Drug trafficking under Florida Statute 893.135.
Any crime that serves as a predicate offense for registration as a sexual predator or sexual offender, whether or not that single offense would trigger registration on its own.
Kidnapping, stalking, child abuse, and certain fraud schemes, including organized fraud under 817.034.

This list is absolute. The rest of your history, the strength of the evidence, and the reason charges were dropped do not change the outcome.

Eligibility Rules That Apply Regardless of the Charge

Even if your charge is expungable in principle and your case ended in a qualifying way, Florida imposes several cumulative requirements. Failing any one of them disqualifies you:¹

No prior convictions. You must never have been adjudicated guilty of a felony in Florida, or of certain misdemeanors including assault, battery, carrying a concealed weapon, indecent exposure, petit theft, arson, child neglect, and animal cruelty.
No prior sealing or expungement. Florida gives you one court-ordered sealing or expungement in your lifetime. The single exception is converting a 10-year-old sealed record to an expungement.⁴
No current supervision. You cannot be on probation, parole, or any other court supervision related to the case you want expunged.
One arrest per petition. Each petition covers a single arrest or incident. Multiple arrests require multiple petitions, and the one-time limit still caps the total to one.

These rules trip up more applicants than the charge list does. A decades-old felony conviction, or a previously sealed unrelated case, will block an expungement petition even for a dismissed charge that would otherwise qualify.

Two Pathways With Their Own Rules

Florida recognizes two specialized expungement routes that operate outside the standard eligibility framework. Neither counts against the lifetime one-time limit.

Lawful Self-Defense Expungement

If the state attorney or court concluded that you acted in lawful self-defense and dismissed the charges on that basis, you can petition for expungement under Florida Statute 943.0578 regardless of prior convictions or previous expungements. You need a certified written statement from the prosecutor confirming that the dismissal was based on a self-defense finding.⁵ The court retains discretion to grant or deny.

Human Trafficking Victims

Victims of human trafficking can expunge criminal records that resulted from being trafficked, and Florida places no cap on the number of arrests or convictions that can be cleared through this route.⁶ This pathway is far broader than the standard one-case rule.

Juvenile Records Are Handled Automatically

Florida expunges most juvenile records without any petition. Standard juvenile offenses are automatically expunged at age 21 (two years after the minor turns 19). Records of serious or habitual juvenile offenders are held five years longer, with automatic expungement at age 26.⁷ Some minors can apply for early expungement; denial of that application does not affect the automatic timeline.

What Expungement Does Not Erase

Even after a Florida court orders an expungement, the record is not gone for every purpose. Two areas matter most.

Situations Where You Must Still Disclose

Florida law allows you to deny the arrest ever occurred in most contexts, including under oath, without risk of perjury. But you must disclose an expunged record when:¹

Applying for employment with a criminal justice agency.
Seeking admission to the Florida Bar.
Applying for employment, licensure, or contracts with the Department of Children and Families, the Agency for Health Care Administration, the Department of Health, the Department of Elderly Affairs, the Department of Juvenile Justice, or similar agencies involving direct contact with children, the disabled, or the elderly.
Seeking employment with the Department of Education, school districts, charter schools, private schools, or licensed child care facilities.
Applying for insurance licensing through the Division of Insurance Agent and Agency Services.
Seeking appointment as a legal guardian.
Being a defendant in a new criminal case or filing another petition to seal or expunge.

Criminal justice agencies also keep access to the underlying record for law enforcement purposes, though they see only a notation that a record exists rather than the details.⁸

Immigration

If you are not a U.S. citizen, a Florida expungement has little practical effect on your immigration case. Federal immigration law treats a conviction as a conviction: if you pleaded guilty, were found guilty, or admitted the underlying facts and received any punishment (including probation or a fine), USCIS counts it regardless of what state courts later do with the record. USCIS also requires full disclosure of your entire criminal history, including dismissed, sealed, and expunged cases. Treating an expunged record as invisible on an immigration application can be treated as misrepresentation and lead to denial, removal proceedings, or permanent inadmissibility. Talk to an immigration attorney before filing.

1
Florida Legislature. Florida Code 943.0585 – Court-Ordered Expunction of Criminal History Records
2
Florida Senate. Florida Code 943.059 – Court-Ordered Sealing of Criminal History Records
3
Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Reasons for Denial
4
Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Applying for a Certificate of Eligibility for Court-Ordered Sealing or Expungement
5
Florida Senate. Florida Code 943.0578 – Lawful Self-Defense Expunction
6
National Conference of State Legislatures. Judicial Protections, Remedies, and Restitution for Human Trafficking
7
Florida Legislature. Florida Code 943.0515 – Expunction of Criminal History Records of Minors
8
Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Frequently Asked Questions