Can a domestic violence charge be sealed?

The analysis follows the general sealing framework with an important complication.

Sealing and expunction ordinarily require that adjudication was withheld — that you weren't convicted. A conviction generally forecloses it.

Beyond that, Florida's statutes list offenses that can't be sealed even where adjudication was withheld, and domestic violence related offenses appear in that framework. That means a case resolved with a withhold may still be ineligible.

Where eligibility is more likely: a case that was dismissed outright, or never filed. Those follow a different path and depend on your complete record rather than this case alone.

The practical implication is significant. Because sealing options are constrained, how a domestic violence case resolves matters more than in most categories — a dismissal and a withhold are not equivalent outcomes here, even though they often are elsewhere.