How it works in Florida

The steps

Your county's guide has the places, the clerk's offices and what each step costs. Find your county's guide →

1. Get your fingerprint card

   An authorized member of law enforcement or another criminal justice agency takes your prints on a fingerprint card — your county's sheriff, or any law enforcement or criminal justice agency that takes prints. The card carries your name, date of birth, signature and the date, with the official's signature and the agency's ORI number or stamp. Each agency sets its own price; your county's guide lists the places.

2. Get a certified disposition of your case

   The clerk of court in the county where your case was handled provides a certified disposition — the record of how the case ended — for each charge on your application. If you were on probation, add the paper showing it ended. For pretrial intervention or another diversion program, the completion certificate or letter of successful completion can take the disposition's place.

3. Apply to FDLE for your certificate of eligibility (for expungement, with the state attorney's or statewide prosecutor's statement)

   You send FDLE an application signed before a notary public or a deputy clerk of court, with a fingerprint card, a certified disposition of your case, and the processing fee (unless FDLE's executive director waives it) — and, for expungement, a certified statement from the state attorney or statewide prosecutor confirming that your record meets the statute's criteria, on the application's written certified statement page; if an attorney represents you, add the attorney's letter of representation. FDLE says processing typically takes 10 weeks from the date a completed packet arrives, in the order received. The certificate is valid for 12 months from the date stamped on it; after that, you reapply.

   Certificate of eligibility fee: $75 — paid to FDLE with the certificate-of-eligibility application

4. Prepare your petition documents

   Expeal, an attorney, or you, yourself, prepare the petition and the sworn statement that goes with it; Florida's Rules of Criminal Procedure publish both forms (Rule 3.989). In the sworn statement you swear that you meet the statute's eligibility requirements, that you are eligible to the best of your knowledge, and that you have no other petition to seal or expunge pending in any court. A knowingly false sworn statement is a third-degree felony.

5. File your petition

   File the petition, with the certificate and your sworn statement, with the clerk of court in the county where your case was handled, and pay the clerk's charge under Fla. Stat. § 28.24(26). You serve copies of all three on everyone the official petition form lists: the state attorney's office (or the special prosecutor or statewide prosecutor), the arresting agency, the sheriff of the county where you were arrested if another agency made the arrest, and FDLE. The prosecutor and the arresting agency may respond to the court. Your county's guide has the clerk's offices and the filing fee.

6. The judge rules

   The court may grant or deny the petition. If it grants, the clerk sends certified copies of the order to the state attorney or statewide prosecutor and the arresting agency, and it goes on to FDLE, the FBI and every other agency that received your record. Florida's agencies then act on it: an expunged record is destroyed, though FDLE keeps a confidential copy, the clerk seals the court file and an agency may keep a note that it complied; a sealed record is kept confidential.

Ready to see whether this path fits your record? The eligibility check asks the same questions the application does.