Florida’s new expungement law, which took effect July 1, 2023, is actually an automatic sealing law. Under Section 943.0595, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement now seals qualifying non-conviction arrest records on its own, without a petition, attorney, or filing fee. The traditional court-ordered sealing and expungement process still exists for cases the automatic law doesn’t reach.
Which Cases Qualify for Automatic Sealing
The automatic process applies when a criminal case ended without a conviction in one of four specific ways:1Florida Senate. Florida Code 943.0595 – Automatic Sealing of Criminal History Records
- The State Attorney or statewide prosecutor never filed formal charges.
- Charges were filed but later dropped by the prosecutor or dismissed by the court on all counts.
- A judge or jury returned a not guilty verdict on all counts.
- The judge entered a judgment of acquittal on all counts.
Once one of those outcomes is reached, the clerk of court sends a certified copy of the disposition to FDLE, which seals the record. The statute doesn’t set a deadline for how quickly FDLE must act, so there can be a gap between the case outcome and the record actually becoming confidential.2Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 943.0595 – Automatic Sealing of Criminal History Records
There is no limit on how many records a person can have automatically sealed. Five separate arrests that all ended in dismissal? All five qualify.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 943.0595 – Automatic Sealing of Criminal History Records That is a sharp departure from the older court-ordered process, which allows only one sealing or expungement in a lifetime.
Which Cases Are Excluded
The automatic law carves out arrests involving a forcible felony or a qualifying sex offense. Forcible felonies under Florida law include murder, manslaughter, sexual battery, robbery, burglary, arson, kidnapping, carjacking, home-invasion robbery, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, and aggravated stalking.3Florida Senate. Florida Code 776.08 – Forcible Felony Even an outright acquittal on one of those charges will not trigger automatic sealing. The court-ordered process is the only route.
Two narrower exclusions also apply. If charges were dismissed because the defendant was found incompetent to proceed under Section 916.145 or under the juvenile incompetency statute in Section 985.19, the record is not automatically sealed. A not guilty verdict based on insanity is likewise excluded.2Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 943.0595 – Automatic Sealing of Criminal History Records
Sealing vs. Expungement Under Florida Law
People use these words interchangeably, but they produce different results. The 2023 law performs sealing only, not expungement.
A sealed record is made confidential. It still exists, and a short list of agencies can see it in full, but it should not appear on a standard background check.4Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 943.059 – Court-Ordered Sealing of Criminal History Records An expunged record goes further: every criminal justice agency that holds it must physically destroy its copy, with FDLE keeping a single confidential copy.5Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 943.0585 – Court-Ordered Expungement of Criminal History Records Agencies that would normally see a sealed record learn only that an expungement occurred, without the arrest details, unless they obtain a court order.6Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Frequently Asked Questions
Expungement in Florida requires a court petition. If you want your automatically sealed record destroyed rather than just hidden, you still have to apply for court-ordered expungement.
Who Can Still See the Record
Sealing hides the record from the general public, not from everyone. In the following situations, you have to disclose the arrest and the agency can see the sealed file:7Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Entities Entitled to Access Sealed and Expunged Records
- Applying for a job with a criminal justice or law enforcement agency.
- Being a defendant in a new criminal prosecution.
- Seeking admission to the Florida Bar.
- Applying for employment or licensure with the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Health, the Department of Education, or the Department of Juvenile Justice, particularly in positions involving direct contact with children, the elderly, or disabled individuals.
- Undergoing a background check for a firearm purchase or a concealed carry license.
- Seeking a license from the Division of Insurance Agent and Agency Services.
- Seeking appointment as a guardian.
Outside those categories, Florida law allows you to lawfully deny the arrest ever happened, and you cannot be prosecuted for perjury or similar offenses for doing so.4Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 943.059 – Court-Ordered Sealing of Criminal History Records On a private employer’s job application that asks about arrests, you can check “no.”
When You Still Need the Court-Ordered Process
Several situations fall outside automatic sealing and require a petition:
- Your case involved a forcible felony or qualifying sex offense, even if it was dismissed or you were acquitted.
- You received a withhold of adjudication rather than a dismissal, acquittal, or declination to file.
- You want the record destroyed through expungement rather than just sealed.
Court-ordered sealing under Section 943.059 generally requires that adjudication was withheld. Court-ordered expungement under Section 943.0585 is available where charges were dismissed, the person was acquitted, or charges were never filed. Either way, the offense cannot appear on the ineligible list in Section 943.0584, and the person cannot have been adjudicated guilty of certain disqualifying offenses.8Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 943.0584 – Criminal History Records Ineligible for Court-Ordered Expunction or Court-Ordered Sealing
The biggest limitation of the court-ordered route is the one-time rule. A person can receive only one court-ordered sealing or expungement in a lifetime.4Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 943.059 – Court-Ordered Sealing of Criminal History Records One important point: records cleared through automatic sealing under Section 943.0595 do not count against that limit. Having an automatically sealed record on your history does not disqualify you from filing one court-ordered petition later.
What the Court Process Costs and How Long It Takes
If you do need to file, the first step is applying to FDLE for a Certificate of Eligibility.9Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Applying for a Certificate of Eligibility for Court-Ordered Sealing or Expungement The application requires a notarized form, a full set of fingerprints, a certified disposition from the clerk of court, and a nonrefundable $75 processing fee payable to FDLE.
Fingerprinting typically runs between $10 and $90 depending on the provider, Florida notary fees are capped at $10 per signature, and the circuit court charges its own filing fee for the petition itself, which varies by county. Total out-of-pocket costs for someone filing without an attorney generally run into the low hundreds.
FDLE’s review for the Certificate of Eligibility can take around twelve weeks, though timelines vary. Once the certificate issues, you file the petition in the circuit court for the county where the arrest occurred and serve a copy on the State Attorney’s Office, which has the chance to object. If there is no objection and the court finds you eligible, the judge enters the order.
If You Are Not a U.S. Citizen
Florida sealing and expungement will not necessarily protect you in immigration proceedings. Federal immigration law uses its own definition of “conviction” that does not line up with Florida’s.
Under federal policy, a conviction exists when a judge or jury found the person guilty, or the person pleaded guilty or no contest, and the judge imposed some form of punishment or restraint on liberty.10U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Policy Manual Volume 12, Part F, Chapter 2 – Adjudicative Factors Probation counts. So a Florida case treated as “no conviction” because adjudication was withheld can still be a conviction to USCIS.
Vacating or expunging a conviction at the state level has limited effect federally. A conviction vacated due to a constitutional defect in the proceeding is not a conviction for immigration purposes. A conviction vacated solely because the person completed a rehabilitative program, or to avoid immigration consequences, still counts.10U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Policy Manual Volume 12, Part F, Chapter 2 – Adjudicative Factors Pretrial diversion that required no admission or finding of guilt does not count as a conviction, and juvenile adjudications generally do not count unless the juvenile was charged as an adult.