The Florida Law on Expunging Your Criminal Record

I am an attorney practicing criminal defense in the state of Florida. That makes me lucky. Lucky because in Florida we have enough criminal laws to arrest just about anybody for just about anything.
All these laws are for a different blog. The issue I want to talk about is criminal record expungements. There are many differnet viewpoints on expunging a criminal record. Many people still believe that if someone has ever been arrested we should all have access to that information. I, having been involved in the criminal justice system as both a prosecutor and a defense attorney, have a completely different viewpoint.
There is an absolute need, and I mean “need,” for having the ability to expunge a criminal arrest record. Why so much emphasis on a requirement to have the expungement option? First, we have too many criminal laws today. Laws that make it a criminal offense to have more than one drivers license, to have a license that has been expired for over 4 months, or to pop a wheelie on a motorcycle – as examples. Then we have courts that make it too easy for the state to prove up these offenses. And finally, we have legislators that seem to think that creating more and more laws to regulate us is their only job.
But what about the time you misplace your license so you go pay for a duplicate (it is a civil citation to not present a license during a traffic stop) only to find your original later on. Is this really a crime?
People need to have the ability to erase these “non-offenses” from their records and expungements are the only way to do this today.
To be sure, it is an imperfect system but it does obtain some relief for our clients. There are some requirements that must be complied with but that is a small price to pay to have these things removed from your background check.

Eric J. Dirga is a solo attorney practicing only criminal law in the Orlando area, He can be located at Eric Dirga’s Criminal Law Website.

For more specific information about expunging a criminal arrest record please visit Florida Expungements