SEALING & EXPUNGEMENTLaw Office of the Public Defender

If you have been charged with a crime but have no criminal conviction in your history, you may be eligible to have a charge sealed or expunged from your record. Sealing a criminal record involves making a person’s criminal history inaccessible to the general public. However, city, county, state and federal government and agencies (including the police and military), will have access to review your criminal history records whether or not those records are sealed. Expunging a record involves the court-ordered physical destruction or obliteration of a criminal history record or a portion of that record.

The initial sealing and expungement process is handled by application through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.