Florida Court Records: How to Search by County, What's Public, and How Sealing Works

Florida has no single website for searching every court case in the state. Case records are kept by each county's Clerk of Court, so finding a specific case means identifying the right county among Florida's 67 and using that county's own online system.

The state does run one prominent statewide portal, the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal at myflcourtaccess.com, but it exists so attorneys and self-represented litigants can file documents electronically. It is not a public case-lookup tool, and typing a name into it will not return case results. A separate statewide index, the Comprehensive Case Information System (CCIS), also exists behind the scenes, but access is limited to the judiciary, law enforcement, and other government users; the general public cannot register for it.

Information last verified on 2026-08-10. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

This guide is part of a broader look at court records by state; for the mechanics of federal versus state versus county searches generally, see how to look up court records and are court records public.

Why Florida Has No Statewide Case Search

In most states with a unified portal, the state's Administrative Office of the Courts or Judiciary itself operates the search tool. Florida's Clerks of Court, by contrast, are independently elected constitutional officers in each county, and Florida has never consolidated their case-management systems into one public search front end the way Michigan, Indiana, or Hawaii have. What Florida has instead is myflcourtaccess.com, the statewide E-Filing Portal, which the site itself describes as connecting self-represented litigants, attorneys, and judges to Florida's court system for filing purposes. It is a genuinely large system, but its job is submitting documents into a case, not letting a stranger browse case history by name. Readers who land on myflcourtaccess.com looking for a case search will find nothing useful there. The other statewide layer, CCIS, functions as an internal index for government users such as courts, law enforcement, and state agencies; it is not a substitute for a public search, because the public cannot use it.

Finding a County's Court Records Portal

The practical starting point is knowing which county the case was filed in, then going directly to that county Clerk of Court's website. Coverage, cost, and interface vary by county because each clerk runs its own system. Three examples illustrate the range:

Broward County's Case Search (browardclerk.org/Web2) allows free, anonymous searching by party name, business name, case number, or citation number across civil, family, probate, felony, traffic and misdemeanor, appeals, and criminal cases. The clerk's own site states plainly that "information provided through this site does not constitute the official court records of the Clerk," and that viewing Domestic Violence, Family, Guardianship, Mental Health, or Probate electronic case records requires attorney-of-record or registered-user access, even though the case itself may otherwise be public.

Hillsborough County directs searchers to its HOVER online portal from the clerk's Records and Reports page. The same page also handles requests to seal or unseal non-criminal court records and describes how to order certified electronic court documents.

Miami-Dade County's Clerk offers its Civil, Family and Probate Courts Online System (OCS) for standard case lookups in those divisions, with additional fee-based advanced search options for Official Records beyond the basic tier. Exact current pricing for those advanced tools should be confirmed directly on the clerk's site, since it can change.

If you do not already know which county to search, most clerks publish contact information and a records-request process for callers who are unsure, and the courthouse itself can point you to the right county if a case was transferred or the parties are unsure where it was filed.

What's Public and What's Restricted Online

Florida's constitution and Rule of General Practice and Judicial Administration 2.420 start from a strong presumption of openness: "The public has access to all records of the judicial branch of government, except as provided below." Rule 2.420(d)(1)(B) then lists 25 specific statutory categories the clerk must automatically treat as confidential, without a court order being required first. They include dependency, termination of parental rights, and child abuse or neglect records under Chapter 39; adoption records; Baker Act mental health clinical records; substance abuse treatment records; grand jury records; juvenile delinquency records; complete presentence investigation reports; forensic behavioral health evaluations; gestational surrogacy records; guardianship reports and related accountings; Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, and payment card numbers within filings; birth records and portions of death records; and petitions and identifying documents in human trafficking victim expunction cases, among others.

Rule 2.420 is not the only automatic route. Florida Statutes section 943.0595, titled "Automatic sealing of criminal history records; confidentiality of related court records," adds a separate statutory mechanism. Once the Department of Law Enforcement notifies the clerk that it has sealed a qualifying non-conviction criminal history record, the clerk must automatically keep the related court record confidential and exempt from section 119.071(1) and article I, section 24(a) of the Florida Constitution. No motion and no court order is involved, so a case that was publicly searchable at disposition can drop out of a clerk's public index on its own.

Separately from that statewide confidentiality list, some counties layer their own access rules on top for case types that are technically public but sensitive, such as Broward's requirement that only an attorney of record or a registered user can view Domestic Violence, Family, Guardianship, Mental Health, or Probate case records online. That is a county clerk practice rather than a single statewide rule, so a reader should not assume every Florida county handles those case types the same way online; check the specific county clerk's own access policy.

Sealing and Expunction in Florida

Florida treats sealing and expunction as two distinct remedies. The court-ordered version of each requires a Certificate of Eligibility from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement before a court will act. Under Florida Statutes section 943.059, a sealed criminal history record becomes "confidential and exempt" from Florida's public records law, but it does not disappear. Certain entities keep access even after sealing: the person who is the subject of the record and that person's attorney, criminal justice agencies acting for criminal justice purposes (including firearm purchase background checks), judges in the state court system for case-related decisions, and specified employment or licensing entities such as school districts, child welfare agencies, and other law enforcement licensing bodies. Expunction under section 943.0585 goes further, generally directing physical destruction or obliteration of the record, though criminal justice agencies may retain a confidential copy for limited future purposes.

Not every Florida record clears through a petition, though. Section 943.0595 directs the Department of Law Enforcement to seal a criminal history record automatically where no charging document was filed, where the charges were dismissed or nolle prossed as to all counts, where a not-guilty verdict was returned on all counts, or where a judgment of acquittal was entered, subject to exclusions for forcible felonies and certain other enumerated offenses. The clerk transmits a certified copy of the disposition and the department seals the record on receipt, with no petition, no certificate of eligibility, and no court order. Two further routes are also handled inside the department rather than by a judge: administrative expunction under section 943.0581 for a nonjudicial arrest record where the arrest was made contrary to law or by mistake, and diversion program expunction under section 943.0582 for a minor who completed a county diversion program.

Florida is not among the states that have adopted a broad automatic conviction-sealing law, because section 943.0595 reaches only non-convictions. Clearing a record that falls outside it still means a petition, a certificate of eligibility, and a judge, on eligibility rules that vary by offense and case outcome. For the eligibility tests, waiting periods, and filing steps, see Florida expungement and sealing laws, which this page does not duplicate.

Certified Copies and Courthouse Access

A certified copy of a Florida court document comes from the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where the case was filed, not from a state agency. Some clerks, including Broward, offer paid electronic certified copies through their online systems; others require an in-person or mail request. Records that are confidential online, or that a particular county gates behind registered access, are typically still available to review in person at the courthouse, subject to the same confidentiality categories under Rule 2.420.

Using Florida Court Records the Right Way

A county clerk search is built for looking up your own case, checking the status of a matter you are a party to, or doing general public research, not for screening a tenant, applicant, or date. Common names produce false matches across Florida's 67 separate county systems, and a record with no verifying case number or date of birth should be treated as unconfirmed rather than assumed to belong to the person you searched.

This distinction has real legal weight. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, arrests and most civil judgments age off a consumer report after seven years, but criminal convictions are carved out of that limit entirely under 15 U.S.C. section 1681c(a)(5) and can be reported indefinitely; only a Florida sealing or expunction order removes a conviction from a compliant background check. Anyone compiling public-records information for hiring, housing, or similar decisions may be acting as a consumer reporting agency under federal law, and the FTC has enforced this directly: in 2023 it reached a $5.8 million settlement with TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate over marketing public-records reports for tenant and employee screening without following FCRA requirements. A free county clerk search is not a substitute for an FCRA-compliant background check when the decision involves employment or housing.

Disclaimer

This article explains how Florida court records are organized and searched. It is general legal information, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for a licensed title, legal, or background-screening professional. Portal features, coverage, and fees change without notice; verify current details with the specific county Clerk of Court before relying on them. Consult a Florida-licensed attorney for advice about a specific case.

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Last updated: 2026-08-10. Portal facts and fees reflect their published status as of August 2026.