Sealing in Florida
Court-ordered sealing under Fla. Stat. § 943.059 makes your record confidential. It is not destroyed. Courts and criminal justice agencies keep access, and so do you and your attorney. The public loses it. With specific exceptions, you may lawfully deny it. The exceptions matter. Some employers and licensing bodies keep access by law. Examples: jobs serving children or vulnerable adults.
Sealing usually fits a case where adjudication was withheld. You were not adjudicated guilty. But the case did not end in your favor either. So expungement's stricter test is out of reach, at least until the record has been sealed for 10 years. The list in Fla. Stat. § 943.0584 applies to sealing too, and it counts a guilty or no-contest plea, or a finding of guilt at trial, as a conviction even when adjudication was withheld.
Florida also seals some records on its own under Fla. Stat. § 943.0595. With some exceptions, it covers a case that ends with no charge filed, or with every count dropped, dismissed, found not guilty or acquitted. The clerk reports it, and FDLE seals it. No application, no fee, no limit on how many times. The automatic path covers fewer kinds of case endings than the court-ordered one, but it does not look at the rest of your record. A record that misses it may still be sealed by petition, if it passes the court-ordered test.
A sealed record is also the door to expungement. After 10 years sealed, it may qualify for court-ordered expunction under Fla. Stat. § 943.0585. One check covers both remedies.
Learn more about how this works.