A single arrest — even one where the charges were dropped — follows you through every job application, every lease, every background check. Florida gives you a way to clear it. Find out in ten minutes whether you qualify.
Eligibility Result
Likely eligible§ 943.059, Fla. Stat.
No prior sealing or expungement on your record
Probation terminated 03/2021
Expungement is not available: adjudication was withheld. After this record has been sealed for 10 years, you can apply to expunge it.
Next step: obtain a certified disposition from the Leon County Clerk of Court for case 2018-MM-004321.
The Process
Clearing a Florida record takes two separate approvals — first from FDLE, then from a judge. The certificate FDLE sends you is not the finish line. Here is the whole thing, start to end.
You do not get to choose. How your case ended decides it — and most people guess wrong, because “adjudication withheld” feels like an acquittal but is treated very differently.
If…
Charges dropped, dismissed, or never filed
Expungement
The strongest relief. The record is destroyed.
If…
You pled, adjudication was withheld
Sealing
The record is hidden from public view. After 10 years sealed, you can expunge it.
If…
You were adjudicated guilty — of this, or anything, ever
Not eligible
Court-ordered relief is closed. Other routes may still exist; a pardon is separate.
From FDLE. Several weeks to several months.
One per charge, from the clerk of court in the county where you were charged. If you were on probation, you also need the certified order terminating it.
Form 40-021, signed in front of a notary. We fill it from your answers so the fields match your disposition exactly.
On FDLE's own fingerprint form, taken by a sheriff's office or police department. We pre-fill your identifiers so they only take the prints and sign.
Expungement only. The prosecutor certifies the case is eligible. Sealing applications skip this step entirely.
Money order or check to FDLE — never cash. We include an addressed cover sheet and a checklist so nothing is missing.
In the county where you were arrested.
This does not clear your record. It is permission to ask the court. It expires 12 months from the date FDLE issues it.
A sworn petition, an affidavit, and a proposed order, filed in the county where you were arrested. We prepare all three.
The clerk sends certified copies to every agency holding your record. Now — and only now — is it actually sealed or expunged.
The 12-month clock
Your Certificate of Eligibility expires twelve months after FDLE issues it. If you have not filed your petition by then, you apply again and pay the $75 again. We track this date for you and send reminders.
Your Options
Most people know about two. Some of the others cost nothing, need no court hearing, and leave your one-in-a-lifetime sealing or expungement untouched for when you really need it.
§ 943.0585, Fla. Stat.
The record is destroyed.
Expungement is the strongest relief Florida offers. It applies when your charges were dropped, never filed, or dismissed before you were ever convicted. Agencies physically destroy their copies of the record, and FDLE keeps a single confidential copy that almost no one can reach.
§ 943.059, Fla. Stat.
The record is hidden from the public.
Sealing is for people who took a plea but had adjudication withheld — meaning the judge did not formally convict you. The record still exists, but it is closed to public view. After a record has been sealed for ten years, you can apply to have it expunged entirely.
§ 943.0578, Fla. Stat.
You were arrested for defending yourself.
If the State Attorney agrees you acted in lawful self-defense and your charges were dropped or never filed, Florida gives you a separate expungement route. It is the most overlooked relief in the statute — and it does not use up your one-in-a-lifetime sealing or expungement.
§ 943.0582, Fla. Stat.
A completed diversion program as a minor.
A minor who finished an authorized diversion program for a misdemeanor, or for a felony that was neither violent nor weapon-related, can have that arrest expunged without ever going to court.
§ 943.0515(1)(b)2, Fla. Stat.
Clear a juvenile record between 18 and 21.
Florida erases most juvenile records automatically at 21. If you are between 18 and 21 and have stayed out of trouble for five years, you do not have to wait — you can ask for it early.
§ 943.0581, Fla. Stat.
The arrest was a mistake.
When an arrest was made contrary to law or by mistake — wrong person, mistaken identity, an arrest that should never have happened — the arresting agency or the State Attorney can apply to erase it directly. No court, no fee, and it does not use up your one-in-a-lifetime relief.
§ 943.0583, Fla. Stat.
Offenses committed while you were being trafficked.
Florida recognizes that trafficking victims are often arrested for things they were forced to do. This route expunges those offenses, it is not limited to one in a lifetime, and it is not restricted the way ordinary expungement is.
§ 943.0595, Fla. Stat.
Already sealed — but only partly.
Since 2019 Florida seals some records automatically when the clerk reports a qualifying disposition. Important limit: this reaches only FDLE's copy. Your local sheriff, the police department, the clerk of court, and every commercial background-check company still have theirs.
That is exactly what our screening is for. Answer questions about how your case ended and we will check all eight routes at once — and tell you plainly which are closed and why.
What Most People Don’t Know
Florida record relief is full of rules that are counterintuitive and expensive to learn the hard way. These are the ones that most often catch people out.
Pricing
The eligibility check is free and always will be. You only pay once you know you qualify and you have decided to move forward.
Every document, prepared for you. You handle the filing.
You answer our questions, we produce a complete, correctly-filled packet. You notarize it, get fingerprinted, and mail it in.
A Florida attorney reviews everything before it is filed.
Everything in Self-Prepared, plus a licensed Florida attorney examines your dispositions, confirms the eligibility analysis, and signs off on the packet.
For attorneys and firms running expungements at volume.
Produce packets for your own clients on your own letterhead. Built for criminal defense practices where record relief is a steady part of the caseload.
These go to FDLE, the clerk of court, and law enforcement — not to us. You would pay them whether you used CaseEraser or did everything yourself.
Common Questions
Straight answers, including the parts people would rather not hear.
Read all 17 questionsExpungement destroys the record. Sealing hides it.
With an expungement, agencies physically destroy their copies and FDLE retains one confidential copy that is effectively unreachable. With a sealing, the record continues to exist but is closed to the public.
Which one you qualify for is not a choice you get to make — it is decided by how your case ended. If your charges were dropped, dismissed, or never filed, you are in expungement territory. If you took a plea and the judge withheld adjudication, you are in sealing territory. There is no way to talk your way from one to the other.
Once in your lifetime, for court-ordered sealing or expungement. That is the rule that surprises people most.
It is not once per case — it is once, total, for your whole life in Florida. If you seal a case now, you cannot seal or expunge a different one later.
This is exactly why choosing the right case matters. If you have two records and only one can ever be cleared, you want the one that is actually hurting you. A few of the other routes — self-defense expungement, juvenile diversion, administrative expungement — do not consume that lifetime allowance.
Yes, and this is the most common reason applications get denied.
If you have ever been adjudicated guilty of any criminal offense anywhere — not just the case you want cleared — you cannot get a court-ordered sealing or expungement in Florida. A twenty-year-old conviction in a county you have not lived in since still counts.
People forget these. A DUI at 19. A reckless driving charge that "got reduced". A driving-while-license-suspended ticket that was actually a criminal charge, not a traffic ticket. Any of those, if you were adjudicated guilty, ends the analysis.
Before you spend the $75 FDLE fee, it is worth being certain. Our screening asks about this specifically.
In most situations, yes — and this is the practical point of the whole exercise.
Once a record is sealed or expunged, Florida law lets you lawfully deny the arrest on most employment and housing applications.
There are exceptions, and they are real. When you are applying to a criminal justice agency, seeking admission to The Florida Bar, applying for certain professional licenses, or seeking a job working with children, the elderly, or people with disabilities, you must disclose. Applying to be a police officer while denying a sealed arrest is its own serious problem.
Ten minutes, no account required, no card. You will know which of the eight pathways are open to you, which are closed, and exactly why.
Your answers are encrypted and never sold. We are a Florida law firm, not a data broker.