Tampa Criminal Records Expungement Attorney

Experienced Lawyers for Sealing Records serving Tampa Bay, Clearwater, Bradenton, Spring Hill, and New Port Richey

By Gayann Barbella, Esq.

So you had a brush with the law and came out unscathed, with one slight hitch – anyone with a computer and a few minutes of spare time on his hands can look you up and see information about your criminal case, such as when you were arrested, why you were arrested and what charges the State Attorney may have filed on your case.  Of course the disposition of your case will also be there, but so will the sordid details.

How on earth can you stop this embarrassment?  One answer – a sealing or criminal records expungement.  Sealings and expungements are used as similar terms in the vernacular sense but are technically different.  Sealing records is appropriate when you have been arrested and you either successfully complete a diversion program or adjudication is withheld on your case. An expungement is used to clear a record when the State Attorney has filed formal charges on your case but then those charges are subsequently dropped before the case ever got off the ground.  If you have a criminal conviction on your record, you will not be eligible for a sealing or criminal records expungement, but you may be eligible to have your civil rights restored.

You may be sitting back reading this and smiling, thinking that you can use a sealing or expungement of records in the same way you use the safe driving course to avoid points on your license after a speeding ticket.  Stop laughing!  A sealing or criminal records expungement will only help you one time – EVER!  In Florida, you are only eligible for a sealing or expungement of records once, so if you are eligible and do get your record sealed, be forewarned, any subsequent arrest and resulting charges filed will never be eligible for a sealing or expungement, so try and stay on the straight and narrow!

Another important consideration for a sealing records or expungement is timing.  When you do a Google® search for “criminal background checks” there are 141,000,000 hits!  There are websites that have the primary purpose of selling background checks to people who are looking for criminal information on you, such as prospective employers or rental agencies.  Those websites are in business to make money, not save you embarrassment, and how they operate is tricky.  The websites upload information from various law enforcement databases and then let the information sit stagnant; that is, the websites fail to update the information.  So what can happen is that the website uploads the information about your arrest and charges and then never update it.  How do you potentially avoid this? Seal or expunge your record AS SOON AS POSSIBLE after the disposition of your case!  Don’t wait!  The current time it takes to seal or expunge a case is about 6 months, so act now to avoid the catastrophic loss that can accompany a leak of this information.

The attorneys at Carlson, Meissner, Hart & Hayslett have experience with sealing records and expungement.  Contact us for a free pre-screening to investigate whether you are eligible for either a sealing or expungement of records.