The Florida Department of Law Enforcement - or FDLE for short - is the Florida statewide law enforcement agency that is responsible to process, investigate, and determine eligibility for every sealing or expungement of a criminal record in the State of Florida.
No matter whether your case comes out of Miami-Dade County, Alachua County, Orange County, or wherever - FDLE will be the agency that decides whether you should be issued a Certificate of Eligibility.
It may be possible to seal or expunge a record without a Certificate of Eligibility (very rare circumstances), but in nearly all sealing or expungement matters, an FDLE Certificate of Eligibility will be your ticket to having a clean criminal record.
Most Judges simply rely on these Certificates and will grant your sealing or expungement without a Court hearing. The Certificates have that much weight. As well, Florida law requires that ALL sealing or expungement Petitions be accompanied by an FDLE Certificate of Eligibility.
Once a Certificate of Eligibility is issued, the Petitioner (you) has exactly one calendar year to get a Judge to sign the Order. If you wait longer than that, you will have to start the process all over again.
If you are interested in sealing or expunging your criminal record in Florida and want to see if you are eligible, contact me to discuss.
My office seals or expunges Florida criminal records in ALL FLORIDA COUNTIES.
Eric Matheny is a criminal defense attorney assisting clients with the sealing or expunging of their Florida criminal records. Attorney Eric Matheny offers his sealing/expungement service for all 67 Florida counties.