How Does Expunging My Record Help Me?
Expunging your record is important if you care about your employment future and privacy. A criminal arrest record, even if you were found not guilty, can affect you in many ways: make it difficult to get the job you want, getting into schools you want, housing (apts, condos, community associations), get loans, grants, get a certain professional license, security clearances, in personal relationships, or affect you in other situations where someone is judging you based on what they see in a criminal background check or what you put down about your criminal history in an application.
If you have ever been arrested, or were a defendant in a criminal case, the record of your arrest (arrest form, police, corrections, and court records, etc.) is a public record and available to anyone for any reason. This means anyone can go into the police and/or Court file and read everything about your case. Expunging your record(s) means that the records (police and corrections records, State Attorney and court files) are physically destroyed by the clerk of the court. Also, any other agencies having information about your case must also destroy their record(s) pertaining to you. Your record is then no longer available for public access. Furthermore, giving out any information about the fact that you expunged your record or about the charges you had expunged is illegal. Best of all, after your record is expunged, you may LEGALLY DENY OR FAIL TO ACKNOWLEDGE that you were ever arrested for the charge(s) which were expunged.
Florida law gives you a second chance!
Florida law allows you to expunge your non-judicial (police records, corrections records, and other agency records) and judicial records (state attorney and court case files) if you meet these basic requirements:
- Have never applied for a criminal record sealing or expunction before;
- Haven't been convicted of a crime, misdemeanor, criminal ordinance, or a felony;
- Are not under any type of Court Supervision (probation, community control, or any other court ordered program).
Having your record expunged means that the records regarding your case are destroyed and unavailable to the general public. Also, information regarding the arrest and court case is not available to the general public if a criminal background check is conducted.
After having your record expunged, you have the legal right to deny or fail to acknowledge that you were arrested for the case and charge(s) that were expunged!
KNOW THE TERMS:
- Adjudication or Adjudication of guilt:
- Means that you were convicted by the court, you may be out of luck. However, if you were unrepresented by a lawyer and didn't waive your right to one, there may be a chance to overturn (vacate) your conviction if not too much time has passed. Please see the previously convicted page for more information.
- Withhold of adjudication or adjudication withheld:
- Not a conviction. If you meet the basic requirements AND if your crime isn't one of crimes for which there is an exception, you may be able to seal your record.
- Nolle Prosse:
- Means that the State dropped the charges against you. This is good, you may be able to expunge your record.
- Dismissal:
- If the Court or State Attorney dismissed the charges, you are in good shape. You may be able to expunge your record.
- No Action or No File:
- The State decided not to file charges against you. Also known as a "no file" in other parts of the State. This is good, you may expunge your record.
- Not Guilty:
- Congratulations. You may expunge your record.
- Non-Judical Records:
- These are police records (arrest form, incident reports, and any other reports generated by the police, the department of corrections, and other non-court state agencies like the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles).
- Judicial Records:
- These are records created by the Court and the State Attorney's Office.
- CJIS:
- Known as the Criminal Justice Information System. This is the public database which anyone can go into to check on someone's criminal history. Some counties have online access and some do not. This is however a public database and anyone can go to the courthouse for access.
- Disposition:
- This merely means how the case was disposed of or how the court closed it out.
- Cerified Disposition:
- This is a printout from the clerk of court showing in writing how the case closed out. Once stamped with the clerk's stamp and signed by the clerk it becomes certified and as good as an original from the court file.
Frequently Asked Questions
- WHAT DOES "EXPUNCTION" OR TO HAVE YOUR RECORD "EXPUNGED MEAN?
- Expunction means that your arrest and court records are physically destroyed and thus unavailable to the general public. In addition, information regarding the arrest and court case is removed from the publicly available database known as the CRIMINAL JUSTICE INFORMATION SYSTEM (CJIS) and therefore not available to the general public if a criminal background check is conducted.
- WHAT CHARGES MAY BE EXPUNGED?
- Unlike record sealing where certain charges may not be sealed, ANY charge may be expunged if the charge was dismissed by the court or state attorney, not filed by the state attorney, or you were found not guilty by a judge or jury!
- CAN I EXPUNGE MY ENTIRE RECORD?
- Assuming you qualify, you can only expunge charges from one incident or MULTIPLE charges if all the charges stem from ONE incident.
- Example 1: on June 1, 2000 you were arrested for theft and possession of marijuana at the same time, assuming you qualify, you can expunge them both, because they stem from the same incident.
- Example 2: However, if you were arrested for possession of marijuana and theft on June 1, 2000 and then were arrested on June 15, 2000 for petit theft in an unrelated incident, these charges stem from two separate incidences and assuming you qualify you can only seal one, either the possession of marijuana or the theft.
- I WAS ARRESTED BY MISTAKE (MISTAKEN IDENTITY), WHAT CAN I DO?
- You do not have to use your one time statutory privilege to seal or expunge a mistaken arrest. A mistaken arrest can be expunged administratively and you can save your one time seal or expunge privilege should you ever need it in the future.
- I WAS ARRESTED FOR A FELONY, CAN I EXPUNGE IT?
- Yes, both misdemeanors and felonies can be expunged. Juvenile records can also be expunged.
- WHAT IF I GOT ARRESTED ON SEPARATE DAYS AND GOT MULTIPLE CHARGES?
- If you have multiple charges on different arrests, but the charges stem from the same incident, that may also be expunged as long as the court approves.
- WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EXPUNGING AND SEALING MY RECORD?
- Sealing your record means that your records are sealed and locked away in a vault so that no one without court order may have access to them. Your information regarding the charge is removed from the Criminal Information Justice System (CJIS) and record won't show up in any background check relating to you. After 10 years after having your record sealed, you may ask the Court to expunge (destroy) the record. Only one copy of your record is retained by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and that copy of not viewable or made available to the general public.
- Expunging a record means that the record pertaining to your charges are physically destroyed. Only one copy of your record is retained by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and that copy of not viewable or made available to the general public. The charge expunged is also removed from CJIS so that it doesn't come up on any criminal background checks.
- DO I HAVE TO APPEAR IN COURT?
- In most cases - NO. Your appearance in court is rarely necessary so you won't have to take any time from your busy schedule to attend court. One of our attorneys will appear in court on your behalf. Only in extremely rare cases will a judge request for you to appear.
- HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO EXPUNGE MY RECORD?
- There is red tape to cut and several hoops to jump through (don't worry, we'll do the jumping and cutting). Your application to expunge your record must be first approved by the Office of The State Attorney and then by the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement before your motion to expunge can be set for hearing before the court. This may take 10-12 weeks or slightly longer depending on the backlog of cases. Once we receive approval from the FDLE it may take another 2-4 weeks before your case is heard by the Court. Once the order to expunge is signed by the Court, the order to expunge is then sent to the arresting agency, any other police agency involved in your arrest, any other agencies having information regarding your case, and to the clerk of the court for them to expunge their records. To be safe, give yourself 5-6 months so that your information is expunged and unavailable to the general public.
- WHAT IS EXPECTED OF ME IN THIS PROCESS?
- Not much. We have refined this process to make this experience as easy as possible for our clients. There will be no office visits required. We routinely handle cases for clients all over the state, out of state, and even clients living overseas who were arrested in Florida. We handle your case via email, regular mail, and phone. Our office will prepare the required documents, monitor your FDLE application, deal with the appropriate agencies and the court, make any legal arguments on your behalf, and attend the final hearing on your motion if required by the court
- All you need to do is:
-
- take the fingerprint card we send you and get fingerprinted at any local police station (this costs $5-$15) and;
- have two (2) documents we send you notarized. Send the fingerprint card and the two documents back to us and we'll take care of the rest.
- HOW DO I GET STARTED?
- IN PERSON: Most of our clients choose to deal with us over email, U.S. Mail, and the internet. We've set up our website questionnaire to ensure we obtain all the information we need to work your case. However, if you wish to come in person, please call us for an appointment to come in and give us your information, sign two documents (we'll notarize them for you), and provide your payment. We'll give you a fingerprint card to take with you. Get yourself fingerprinted, send it back to us and we'll take it from there.
- BY INTERNET AND MAIL:If you want to do this completely by mail you have that choice also. Complete the questionnaire from the QUESTIONNAIRE page. Once we have your information, we'll send you a fingerprint card and 2 pre-prepared documents for you to sign and have notarized. Send those back to us and we'll take care of the rest! If you don't wish to pay by credit/debit card online, print out your completed questionnaire and mail it to us with your check or money order. Do not send cash in the mail.
Have a question? Not sure if you qualify? Call us for a free consultation or email us with your question or click on the free consultation button. We'll get back to you as soon as possible!
Have a question? Not sure if you qualify? Call us for a free consultation or email us with your question or click on the free consultation button. We'll get back to you as soon as possible. |
