Expunge Your DUI

Congratulations on taking a big step toward a brighter future! With your record sealed or expunged, more job, educational, housing and loan opportunities are available to you, not to mention relief from knowing you no longer have a criminal past. However, nothing is ever perfect and the sealing or expunging process is no exception. There are still steps you must take to ensure your record is removed from the public eye and things you must know now about complying with Florida law moving forward.

First, make sure your order to seal or expunge contains a list of applicable agencies known to have copies of your record. These agencies typically will be the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), State Attorney’s Office, and local arresting agency (e.g., sheriff’s department). Your local Clerk of Court is supposed to send a copy of the order to all known agencies having a record of your arrest, but it always helps to include the agencies in your order to help expedite this process. If your order does not contain a list of applicable agencies, don’t worry! You can send a copy of the order to each agency yourself. In approximately 60 days, you may want to run a FDLE criminal history check to make sure nothing comes up.

Now here come the words of caution… If your arrest was in the media, it’s still in the media (meaning, it is still accessible to the public). More importantly, private background companies keep their own databases. You may have to contact these companies yourself to request removal of your record. A simple internet search will reveal the major companies providing these services.

Once your record has been expunged or sealed, you may lawfully deny or fail to acknowledge sealed/expunged arrests. But, there are exceptions. If you are:

a candidate for employment with a criminal justice agency;
a defendant in a criminal prosecution;
concurrently or subsequently petitioning to seal another matter;
a candidate for admission to the Florida Bar;
seeking to be employed or licensed by, or to contract with, the Department of Children and Family Services, the Agency for Health Care Administration, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, the Department of Juvenile Justice, or used by such agencies in a sensitive position having direct contact with children, the elderly or the developmentally disabled;
seeking to be employed or licensed by the Department of Education, and district school board, charter school, private school or any local governmental entity that licenses childcare facilities;
attempting to purchase a firearm; or
seeking authorization from a Florida sea port for employment within or access to a seaport

Then you still have to reveal your criminal history. However, in Florida the decision to seal or expunge by a court is discretionary, and it will be helpful to you that a court granted your record sealing or expungement request. For example, although you would have to reveal your prior record if applying to become a member of the Florida Bar, the existence of such record will not automatically disqualify you from membership.

Originally published here.

If you are reading this article, you may have been arrested before. Did you know that even if you were arrested by mistake, the charges against you were dropped, or the charges against you were dismissed, you still have a criminal record in Florida?And that this criminal record will be publicly available to anyone who wants to see it, including potential employers performing a simple background check when you apply for a job or a landlord running a criminal history check when you apply for housing? Most people are not aware that in order to make an arrest record disappear, you must take action!

Administrative Expunction for Mistaken Arrest

The legal procedures for removing a mistaken arrest from your record are different from the regular record sealing or expungement process in Florida. The statute governing administrative expunctions applies to arrest contrary to law or by mistake. “Mistake” is, for example, if someone used your identity when he or she was arrested. With the correct documents, these types of errors should be easily corrected. Expunction based on the “contrary to law” standard, however, is a lot more difficult to obtain.

A Florida law enforcement agency can administratively expunge a non-judicial arrest if the agency determines, of its own volition, that it made an arrest contrary to law or by mistake. Does this actually happen, you wonder? Well, me too. I’ve not seen it yet.

If you think you’ve been arrested contrary to law or by mistake, you will have to obtain the endorsement of the head of the arresting agency, or the state attorney of the judicial circuit in which the arrest occurred, in order to have the arrest expunged administratively. Again, it is not easy to get an arresting agency to admit, in writing, that your arrest was made contrary to law.

Expunging Dropped or Dismissed Charges

If you were arrested, but the charges against you were later dropped or dismissed, then under Florida law you may be eligible to expunge your record (i.e., have your record physically destroyed). It is not necessary to have been arrested by mistake or contrary to law. Procedures and eligibility requirements for expunctions can be found in the Florida Statutes, which are public records easily accessible online.

Sealing an Arrest

If you were arrested, and you pled guilty or no contest to the charges, but received a withhold adjudication, then you may be able to seal your record (i.e., have your record placed under highly restricted access). Again, there is no mistaken arrest requirement in order to get a record sealed.

Remember, a record of your arrest (mistake or not, prosecuted or not) will remain publicly available until you take action to have it removed.

Originally published here.

Call 1-800-270-8774 St. Petersburg Florida DUI Lawyers – Call 1-800-270-8774 in St. Petersburg Florida Should anyone need to face the DUI charges in reality, St. Petersburg Florida DUI Lawyers are experienced and skillful DUI lawyer in the state for DUI offense. St. Petersburg Florida DUI Lawyers are verse with the DUI law in that specific state. These specialized St. Petersburg Florida DUI Lawyers have created an entire industry around helping people clean their records. The most important thing St. Petersburg Florida DUI Lawyers are certified as an operator of breath tests, certified as a trainer for sobriety testing. Having these credentials will insure that St. Petersburg Florida DUI Lawyers will be able to see any mistakes made by police, which could help you walk away from your charges, no matter how long they have been on your record. St. Petersburg Florida DUI Lawyers can help expunge your records or even withdraw a plea and clear it completely.