English
Español
If you are ever convicted of a crime, the actual punishment you receive, including fines, prison time, probation, and more, could be the least of your worries. Our society punishes criminals long after they have served their time and paid for their mistakes.
A criminal blemish on your record will often stigmatize you in the eyes of employers, banks, insurance companies, and more. It may prevent you from getting a loan to buy a car or a home, keep you from getting hired for your dream job, and it could prevent you from traveling outside the US. There are numerous penalties and ramifications that will follow you long after you’ve served the actual sentence for your crime.
And unfortunately, even if you were never found guilty of a crime, the simple fact that you were arrested and charged will still show up on your record and could be enough to cause a great deal of damage to your reputation and prospects.
So what can you do? Do you simply have to spend the rest of your life as a second-class citizen simply because of a mistake you made in your past? There is little recourse for those who have been convicted of a crime, but there are fortunately options available to those who were charged with a crime but never adjudicated guilty.
In the State of Florida, you may be able to have your record sealed or expunged.
Sealing a record means it will not be available to be viewed by the public, while expunging your record means physically destroying it. If you are able to achieve a sealing or expunction of your record, you will legally be able to deny that the criminal issue ever occurred. However, you can only have one criminal incident sealed or expunged.
In order to be eligible for sealing or expunging your records, you must fulfill the following criteria:
- You’ve never before obtained a sealing or expunction
- You’ve never been adjudicated guilty
- You are not currently under any court supervision (i.e. probation)
- You’ve never entered a plea of guilty or no contest to a disqualifying crime as listed in Florida statute, including crimes like arson, manslaughter, and sexual misconduct
In order to have your record expunged, the State Attorney’s Office must have either dropped the charges or completely dismissed the case. Otherwise, if you still fulfill the above criteria you are only eligible for sealing your records. However, after 10 years without further criminal issues, you sealed record will be eligible for expungement.
If you want more information or you believe you could be a candidate to have your record sealed or expunged, please contact the law firm of Weisberg Kainen Mark today and let us fight to help you take back your life.
Weisberg Kainen Mark, PL
Latest posts by Weisberg Kainen Mark, PL (see all)
- The Tax Implications of Securities Fraud - April 15, 2024
