What do you have to reveal about an arrest when the State drops the charges? ~ AVVO.com “Best Answer” ~ Call Michael A. Haber, Esq. @ **ARRESTED

Police make arrests and Prosecutors decide what, if any, charges to file afterward.  The standards are different, as are the consequences.  For an arrest cops need “probable cause”; whereas for a prosecution the State Attorney has to have an abiding belief that a conviction can be secured with competent, admissible evidence that proves, “beyond a reasonable doubt” that a crime was committed by the subject charged.  Many arrests do not get filed and many that do do not wind up in a conviction (not for the crime charged anyhow).  In many of these circumstances Florida Law permits  folks to seal or expunge their records, but, for reasons detailed below, such action is not absolute.  

If you look at the following website you will learn everything you ever wanted to know about the sealing / expunction process: 

http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/content/getdoc/c83dd888-ef7a-448e-9a96-ba69fc4181f7/Seal-and-Expunge-Home.aspx

The procedure is both quite detailed and somewhat painstaking but is also far from being rocket science. You can attempt to navigate it yourself (FDLE has tried to simplify it – again I refer you to the website above) but, assuming your eligibility, any criminal defense lawyer (anywhere in Florida – this can be done remotely and does not necessarily require a local attorney, although a local attorney may or may not be less expensive) will be able to accomplish the task with greater ease and likely in a shorter time period. 

That said I suspect that it doesn’t much matter where you were arrested, what you were arrested for, what the final disposition was or whether or not you sealed / expunged the record. This is 2015 and we are forehead deep into the internet age, where nothing is private, sacred or truly hidden from public scrutiny. 

Sadly, sealing (and expunging) only applies to certain (not even to all) government agencies and has no effect whatsoever on private (er, extortionist) enterprise, who compile and maintain arrest information and then demand that you pay them off to remove your information from their database and public access. Worse still, after you “buy back your information”, then you can count on there being another private company lurking, somewhere, sometime, somehow, just waiting for you to pay them off as well. Its a seemingly never-ending vicious cycle. 

For better or for worse you are probably best advised to take the wind out of the sails by admitting your past issues / indiscretions to your present (or potential) employer, lender, landlord, etcetera, rather than waiting for them to find out on their own. 

I hope that I have been helpful in answering your question.