Tampa Bay Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
If you have been arrested for or convicted of a crime, there is a record of your arrest and subsequent consequences. This can affect many areas of your life, because everyone from banks to employers do personal background checks that will pull up these records. In order to keep one mistake from affecting your entire life, you may need to try to have your record expunged. There are certain situations in which this is possible.
If you were arrested but no charges were filed against you, or if you were found not guilty, you will be able to get your arrest record expunged in most cases. You do have to apply to have your record expunged, however. Just because you were found not guilty does not mean there is no record of your arrest. Make sure that no one can ever know about the incident by requesting to have the record expunged.
You may also be able to get certain convictions or guilty pleas removed from your record. For some crimes, it is possible to have your record sealed. If your record remains sealed for 10 years, it will then be eligible to be expunged. Sealing a record means that no one can see it. Expunging a record means that the record is destroyed forever.
The rules about when a record can be expunged in Florida are extremely complicated. Only an experienced attorney will be able to tell you if you could qualify to have your record expunged. If you feel you may be able to qualify, contact us today for more information or to schedule a consultation.