Florida Bar Character and Fitness Info Resources

By Florida Statute, applicants to the Florida Bar are exempted from non-disclosure of sealed or expunged criminal records. 

§ 943.059(4)(a), Fla. Stat. applies to sealed records.

§ 943.0585(4)(a), Fla. Stat. applies to expunged records. Both state in sub-paragraph (4)(a)(4):

(a) The person who is the subject of a criminal history record that is expunged (or sealed) under this section or under other provisions of law, including former s. 893.14, former s. 901.33, and former s. 943.058, may lawfully deny or fail to acknowledge the arrests covered by the expunged record, except when the subject of the record:

. . . 

4. Is a candidate for admission to The Florida Bar;..." (emphasis supplied).

Therefore, when applying to the Florida Bar you must disclose your entire criminal record, including sealed and expunged records. See page 14 of the Florida Bar Admissions Process guide.

The process gets tricky when you cannot remember if you had a criminal record sealed or expunged . . . because those records will not show on the public face of a records search.

In this case, you may want to pay for a thorough criminal histories record search from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Federal Bureau of Investigations. A detailed history will provide you, as a statutorily authorized party, information regarding sealed records. From this information, you can then request records to be unsealed as needed for proper reporting to the Florida Bar. Dade County Police Department central records also allows you to request your own local sealed records in person.

Expunged records should have been destroyed, and will not be available.

NOTE: The Florida Bar is also an authorized party for records request purposes. (see statutes above).

To search for criminal records in any state, you need to know the jurisdiction in which the crime was committed. Individual clerks of court will have criminal record searches.

The links provided below will take you directly to the criminal and traffic records searches in the clerks of court websites for Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe and Palm Beach counties. Keep in mind that different courts classify cases differently. To respond accurately to the questions related to felonies or misdemeanors, you will have to parse out offenses by type.

For a fee, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will provide a detailed criminal record history for Florida offenses. 

Remember that any sealed or expunged criminal records will have to be unsealed or unexpunged as part of your bar application process.