A Florida criminal record is an official document about a person's criminal activities and interactions with the state's justice system. It may include arrest information, charges, disposition, and conviction information. The information contained in a Florida criminal record is compiled with law enforcement agencies, the court system in the state, and other agencies or arms of the criminal justice system in Florida.
The FDLE ( Florida Department of Law Enforcement) maintains criminal records in Florida. Typically, a criminal record check is required for licensing, employment, immigration, certification, and adoption purposes. Misdemeanor and felony convictions on your Florida criminal history report may have negative consequences for retaining your driver's license, finding employment, housing opportunities, college education, joining the United States Military, owning a firearm, voting, child custody, foreign travel, and immigration status.
A Florida criminal record may contain arrest records, charges, dismissed charges, and convictions. You may be able to find the following information in a Florida criminal record:
The public can access Criminal records in Florida except if they have been expunged or sealed. You can access your own criminal records as well as someone else's criminal records, except if such a record has been expunged pursuant to Florida laws.
The central criminal records storage agency for Florida is the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The agency provides public access to criminal records when requested. The state charges $24 for public requests for criminal records.
The CJIS provides multiple options for persons seeking access to criminal records:
In addition to these options, you can access criminal information about sex offenders and predators via the FDLE Sex Offenders and Predators Search. Pursuant to Florida Statute 943.056, you can also request a copy of your criminal record for personal review to verify that it is accurate and complete. The copy of the criminal record returned via the personal review service is not certified and does not contain demographic information. Hence, it cannot be used for employment, immigration, licensing, or certification.
Only individuals or their attorneys are allowed to request criminal records via the personal review option. You cannot request a personal review for another individual. To initiate a criminal record check via the personal review option, submit a completed Personal Review of Florida Criminal History Record form and fingerprint card to:
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
Post Office Box 1489
Tallahassee, FL 32302-1489
Attn: Criminal History Record Maintenance Section
Felonies are the most serious type of offense in Florida. The state classifies felonies into five categories depending on the severity of the crimes:
This is the most severe type of offense that may be committed in Florida. The most common type of capital felony is first-degree murder.
Life felonies are also severe crimes but less serious than capital felonies. Examples include:
While not as grave as life or capital felonies, first-degree offenses include:
Second-degree felonies include:
Third-degree felonies include:
Felonies in Florida may be punished in the following ways:
If you have been convicted of two or more felonies prior to your current felony conviction, you may be sentenced to a lengthier prison term as a habitual felony offender. In some circumstances, sentencing alternatives to prison may be issued, such as probation with or without an adjudication of guilt, split sentence with probation, prison diversion, community control with intensive supervision, and treatment programs or problem-solving courts.
A felony conviction may have collateral consequences. These consequences may limit employment and housing opportunities and also result in the loss of certain rights (professional licensing, gun ownership, voting rights), impacting the lives of convicted felons and their families.
Compared to felonies, misdemeanors are lesser offenses that carry less strict penalties. Florida categories misdemeanors into two categories:
Offenses in this category are the most serious misdemeanors. Examples of first-degree misdemeanors include:
Second-degree misdemeanors are lesser offenses than first-degree misdemeanors in Florida. Examples include:
Misdemeanors may be punished in the following ways:
Note that DUI misdemeanors may also be penalized by vehicle impoundment, driver's license suspension, and ignition interlock device in addition to the standard penalties. Also, some misdemeanors carry enhanced penalties for repeat offenders. For example, a third or subsequent petit theft conviction or a second misdemeanor battery conviction carries a third-degree felony penalty. Committing some crimes against the elderly, children, or protected professionals may also result in a felony penalty for a misdemeanor offender.
Florida judges have broad discretion in misdemeanor matters. Depending on the specific circumstances in a case, such as the offender's past history and whether mental health issues or addictions are at the root of a crime, a judge may order alternative sentencing. Alternative sentencing may be a combination of sanctions such as jail time, work release, split sentence, probation, community service, treatment, or restitution.
Unless you can get your conviction overturned, a misdemeanor will stay on your background report forever. If you are charged with a misdemeanor but not convicted, the charge may not follow you for the rest of your life, but the arrest will remain on your criminal record until you have it removed by sealing or expungement. In Florida, arrest records are maintained on criminal reports, even for dropped charges. Also, unless you get a felony record expunged, it will stay on your criminal report for life.
However, note that the Federal Credit Reporting Act (FRCA) limits the length of the period certain information, such as criminal convictions, may be reported by CRAs (Consumer Reporting Agencies). Per the FRCA, non-conviction information may be reported for seven years, while conviction data may be reported indefinitely. Note that non-conviction information being reported for only seven years does not mean that criminal record information beyond the seven-year limit has been removed.
If you want your criminal records to be inaccessible to the public in Florida, the state provides two options: sealing and expungement. Pursuant to Section 943.045 (19) of the Florida Statutes, criminal records sealing refers to preserving a record such that it is inaccessible to anyone not having the legal right to access the record. Therefore, if your criminal records are sealed, they are publicly unavailable. However, the documents and information are still on file with the state criminal justice system.
According to Section 943.045 (16) of Florida Statutes, in expungement, a court orders the criminal justice agency with custody of the record to physically destroy a criminal record or portions of it. Physical destruction refers to the complete removal of the records from the agency's database.
Access to sealed and expunged records is only available to certain governmental bodies and entities listed in Section 943.059(4)(a) of Florida Statutes.
Not all offenses are eligible to be sealed or expunged in Florida, even if adjudication is withheld. You are ineligible for a court-ordered sealing or expungement of criminal records if you have been adjudicated guilty of a criminal offense or delinquent for committing the offenses listed under Sections 943.059 and 943.0585 of Florida Statutes. Some of these offenses include arson, luring and enticing a child, aggravated trafficking, kidnapping, procuring a minor for prostitution, robbery, sexual assault, and manslaughter.
To be eligible for sealing or expungement in Florida:
To qualify for an expunction of your criminal record, the charges brought against you must have been dismissed, not pursued, dropped, or resulted in an acquittal after a trial. If you do not qualify for an expungement, you may apply for a sealing order if you entered a "no contest" or "guilty" plea and the court agreed to it without adjudication.
To apply for sealing or expungement of a criminal record, you must submit a petition for sealing or expungement to the court. Before this, you must apply for a Certificate of Eligibility (CoE) from the FDLE. The Certificate certifies that your criminal record is statutorily eligible for an expunction or sealing. However, getting a CoE does not indicate that your criminal record will be sealed or expunged. Granting a petition for sealing or expungement by an eligible petitioner is at the court's discretion. To obtain an application for the CoE, you can email the FDLE Expunge Section at SEinfo@fdle.state.fl.us and request an application to be sent to you by mail or email.
While there is no requirement for you to have an attorney to make a sealing or expungement request, you should still consider hiring an experienced expungement attorney due to the complex legal issues related to the sealing or expungement process.