Expungement Timeline

Answer:

When we meet with our clients, and they’ve finished their criminal case, it’s been resolved either by dismissal or by a plea, they would like to know how can we get rid of this. How can I clear my record? How can I get this off of my record? That is very important for the client because they need to be able to move forward with their lives, and they need to know what the timeline is. It’s very important. They need to know whether it’s going to take three months, six months, nine months, or a year. we will tell you it somewhat depends on how your case is resolved. If your case is resolved by a simple dismissal or by the fact that the prosecuting authority is not going to prosecute the case, then we can file the application paperwork and request the petition within a short period of time because the case will have been resolved once it’s dropped or dismissed. Considering that situation, it will take anywhere between six to nine months.

It could take longer depending on the backlog that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is having at the particular time. The reason why we say that is because the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is the sole governing body that reviews all the applications in the state of Florida. In Orlando, Florida, in Kissimmee, Florida, any county throughout the state of Florida, they will review every expungement and sealing petition and application, so depending on the number that they get at any particular amount, it could be sooner, it could be later. In our experience it takes between three to six months to get your certificate of eligibility, which is based off of your initial application. That essentially is confirmation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that you are actually eligible to seal or expunge your record. That, again, takes three to six months depending on the time of the year the application is submitted.

Once that happens, the final step needs to be done. That can take a few months, so total we’re looking at if the case is resolved quickly it could take anywhere between six to nine months, maybe up to twelve months if there’s significant backlog or some other delay in the court system, but in our experience, that’s the timeline. What we always tell our clients is the sooner you want to get it done, the sooner we got to get started. The sooner we get that application off to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the sooner we can get back the certificate of eligibility, and the sooner we can get – file the petition to have the criminal case sealed or expunged.

Now, on the other hand, if you have just started your case and you have a year left of probation or six months of probation or whatever it may be or you need to finish your diversion, you just need to simply tack that time onto the time that we just mentioned. If you have six months of probation, then it will take you your time to successfully complete the probation, and then you need to add the time of the application and then the final petition. In that scenario, you have six months, and then it could be six months – another six months, nine months, so it could be upwards of a year, year and a half to get that resolved, but again, as we said with the other example, the sooner you meet with your attorney to get that done, to get that initial application filed, the sooner we can get that certificate of eligibility back, the sooner we can get that filed with the court, and the sooner we can get you sealed or expunged and you moving on with your life. Again, if you have any other questions about sealing or expunging a criminal record in Orlando, Florida, please contact the Victory Law Firm.