In Brief
Often yes, once. Florida offers two remedies: expunction under section 943.0585 for cases that ended without a filing, were dropped, or ended in acquittal, and sealing under section 943.059 for cases resolved with adjudication withheld. You must have no adjudication of guilt for anything in your Florida history, the offense itself must not be on the excluded list, and with narrow exceptions you get one sealing or expunction in a lifetime.
This is the question I hear from the person whose case ended years ago and who is tired of explaining it at every job application. The Florida answer is more generous than people fear and stricter than the ads suggest, and the details decide which of those you experience.
On This Page
The Disposition Picks the Remedy
You do not choose between sealing and expunging. The way your case ended chooses for you. Expunction, under section 943.0585, is for cases that ended without a conviction of any kind: no charges filed, charges dropped, a dismissal, or an acquittal. The record is physically destroyed by the local agencies, with one confidential copy retained at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Sealing, under section 943.059, is for cases that ended with adjudication withheld, the Florida outcome where you resolved the case but the judge did not convict you. A sealed record still exists but becomes confidential and invisible to the public, including to ordinary employer background checks.
Both roads run through the same tollbooth: a certificate of eligibility from FDLE, with a 75 dollar fee, before any court will look at a petition. The certificate is valid for 12 months, and the state attorney gets a say before anything is granted.
The Disqualifiers Are the Whole Game
Eligibility fails for three different reasons, and the advertising for record clearing services tends to mention only one. First, the offense itself: section 943.0584 lists categories that can never be sealed or expunged regardless of outcome. Second, the disposition: an adjudication of guilt on the charge you want cleared ends the inquiry, which is why a DUI conviction can never be cleared, a mechanism I explained in the background check post.
Third, and this is the one that surprises people, your whole history counts. The statutes require that you have never been adjudicated guilty of any criminal offense in Florida, and the sealing statute adds a specific list of misdemeanors that disqualify even as juvenile adjudications, including battery, assault, petit theft, and exposure of sexual organs. An old shoplifting adjudication from two decades ago can disqualify an otherwise perfect petition today. The time to think about this rule is while a case is still open, because the difference between an adjudication and a withhold on some minor charge can decide what you are allowed to clean up for the rest of your life.
Once in a Lifetime, With One Upgrade Path
With narrow exceptions, Florida grants one sealing or expunction per lifetime. Spend it on a minor case at 22 and it is unavailable for anything that happens at 40. The statute contains one upgrade path worth knowing: a record that has been sealed for 10 years can become eligible for expunction, converting the better hiding into actual destruction. Deciding when to spend the lifetime remedy, and on which case, is a genuine strategy question for anyone with more than one arrest in their past.
What an Order Actually Does, and Where It Stops
After an order, the statutes let you lawfully deny the arrest ever happened, on job applications included, with listed exceptions: applying to be a police officer or a lawyer, working with children or vulnerable adults, certain licensing agencies, and, for sealed records, firearm purchase checks. Read that list before relying on the denial right, because answering wrong in one of the exception settings creates a new problem.
The order also binds government records rather than the private data market. Companies that copied court records before your order are outside its reach, and getting them corrected is a separate cleanup governed by fair reporting laws. The order is the foundation of that cleanup rather than the whole job. The step by step process, county quirks included, is on the sealing and expunging page, and the rest of the record conversation lives in how long things stay on your record.
Questions About Sealing and Expunging
What is the difference between sealing and expunging in Florida?
Expunction destroys the record at local agencies, with one confidential copy kept at FDLE, and applies to cases that ended without a conviction. Sealing makes the record confidential but intact, and applies to cases resolved with adjudication withheld. The way your case ended decides which one is available.
How many times can you seal or expunge a record in Florida?
Once in a lifetime, with narrow exceptions. A record sealed for 10 years can later become eligible for expunction, which upgrades the same case rather than spending a second remedy.
What disqualifies you from sealing a record in Florida?
An adjudication of guilt for any offense in your Florida history, an offense on the excluded list in section 943.0584, or a prior use of sealing or expunction. Certain misdemeanor adjudications, including battery and petit theft, disqualify on their own.
Can employers see a sealed record in Florida?
Ordinary private employers cannot, and you may lawfully deny the arrest with statutory exceptions, including criminal justice employment, the Florida Bar, work with children or vulnerable adults, certain licensing agencies, and firearm purchase checks.
What This Means for Your Record
Start with the disposition paperwork from the old case, because everything follows from it: which remedy, whether the offense qualifies, and whether anything else in the history blocks it. FDLE’s certificate process does not require guessing, and a clean read of your history before filing beats a denial after. For a case that is still open, remember that today’s outcome is tomorrow’s eligibility, which is a quiet reason the fight over a criminal charge matters past the sentence itself.
Further Reading
- Fla. Stat. 943.0585, court-ordered expunction
- Fla. Stat. 943.059, court-ordered sealing
- FDLE, seal and expunge process
WRITTEN AND REVIEWED BY
Rory Safir, ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist
He is the author of The Florida DUI Trial Manual, an NHTSA-qualified instructor in the standardized field sobriety exercises, faculty of the National College for DUI Defense, and a former Assistant Public Defender in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit.
This post is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Expunction is governed by section 943.0585, Florida Statutes, sealing by section 943.059, and the excluded offense list by section 943.0584, with the certificate of eligibility process administered by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Statutes change and eligibility depends on a complete certified history, so nothing here substitutes for a review of your actual record. Every case turns on its own facts, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
