Withhold of Adjudication in Florida: What It Is, Who Qualifies, and What It Does Not Erase

A withhold of adjudication is a sentencing outcome unique to a handful of states, and Florida is one of them. Under Section 948.01, Florida Statutes, a judge who accepts a guilty or no contest plea, or even a guilty verdict, can withhold the adjudication of guilt and place the defendant on probation instead of entering a conviction. Complete the probation successfully, and under Section 948.04 you are “released from probation” and are “not liable to sentence” for the offense. As a matter of Florida law, you were never convicted.

That makes a withhold one of the most valuable outcomes a defense attorney can negotiate short of an outright dismissal. But it is widely misunderstood in both directions. It is not available for every charge, Florida law flatly prohibits it for some offenses and restricts it for others. And it is not an eraser: the court file stays public, Florida’s own sentencing code still counts a withhold as a prior conviction, and federal immigration law treats most withholds as convictions outright.

This article explains:

• What a withhold of adjudication actually is, and what the judge is deciding
• Which charges can receive a withhold, and which never can
• What a withhold genuinely protects you from
• Where a withhold still counts against you, including immigration and repeat-offense enhancements
• How long a withhold stays on your record, and what actually removes it
• Whether a withhold can be sealed or expunged in Florida, and on what timeline

What a withhold of adjudication actually is

Every Florida criminal case that ends in a plea or guilty verdict reaches the same fork: the judge either adjudicates the defendant guilty, a formal conviction, or withholds adjudication. Section 948.01 frames the choice around two findings: whether the defendant “is not likely again to engage in a criminal course of conduct,” and whether “the ends of justice and the welfare of society” require imposing the penalty.

When adjudication is withheld on a felony, the statute directs the court to place the defendant on probation. The case does not disappear: probation comes with conditions, supervision, and consequences for violations. But if probation ends successfully, Section 948.04(2) supplies the payoff: the probationer “shall be released from probation and is not liable to sentence for the offense for which probation was allowed.” No adjudication is ever entered. Under Florida law, there is no conviction.

Two practical points follow from that structure:

• A withhold usually arrives through negotiation. Most withholds are the product of a plea agreement, the defense negotiates for the withhold as a term of the plea, or asks the judge for one at sentencing. Whether it is realistic depends on the charge, the person’s record, and the State Attorney’s position.
• A withhold is not diversion. Pretrial intervention under § 948.08 ends in a dismissal of the charge before any plea is adjudicated. We cover that in How to Get Criminal Charges Dropped in Florida. A withhold happens after a plea or verdict: guilt has been determined; only the formal conviction is withheld. The difference matters later, especially for record-clearing and immigration.

Which charges can receive a withhold, and which never can

Withholds were once broadly available, but the Legislature has narrowed them, chiefly through Section 775.08435, Florida Statutes, which restricts withholding adjudication in felony cases, and Section 316.656, which forbids it entirely for DUI.

Charge	Is a withhold available?
Capital, life, or first-degree felony	Never, § 775.08435(1)(a)
Second-degree felony	Only on the State Attorney’s written request, or written court findings justifying it under § 921.0026, and not at all if you already have a prior withhold for an unrelated felony
Third-degree felony (generally)	Available in the court’s discretion
Third-degree felony that is domestic violence under § 741.28	Only on the State Attorney’s request or written court findings, same gate as a second-degree felony
Third-degree felony with one prior felony withhold	Only on the State Attorney’s request or written court findings
Third-degree felony with two or more prior felony withholds	Never
DUI under § 316.193	Never, § 316.656 requires adjudication in every DUI case
Most misdemeanors	Available in the court’s discretion

Three things stand out from that table. First, withholds are largely a misdemeanor and third-degree-felony tool: for the serious felony tiers they are either barred or require the prosecutor’s cooperation, which is one more reason early negotiation matters. Second, withholds are rationed: each prior felony withhold makes the next one harder to get, and two prior felony withholds end the possibility entirely. Third, DUI is its own world: Florida law mandates adjudication for DUI convictions, which is part of why DUI outcomes are litigated so differently; see our DUI defense practice page for how those cases actually get contested. For the DUI penalty structure itself, see Florida DUI Charges: Penalties, Process, and What Happens After an Arrest.

For a refresher on how Florida grades offenses in the first place (degrees, maximum penalties, and where misdemeanors end and felonies begin), see Misdemeanor Criminal Charges in Florida.

What a withhold genuinely does for you

Under Florida law, the benefits are real and specific:

• No conviction is entered. The formal legal status “convicted” (with consequences that attach to a felony conviction under Florida law, such as the loss of certain civil rights) is avoided so long as adjudication remains withheld.
• Probation, not prison, is the sentence structure. A withhold travels with probation. Complete it and the case ends with no adjudication and no further sentence exposure under § 948.04(2).
• Answering “have you been convicted?” For questions asked under Florida law’s definitions, a person whose adjudication was withheld has not been convicted of that offense. How to answer any particular employment or licensing question depends on how the question is worded and who is asking: some applications ask about pleas or arrests, not convictions, and answering those inaccurately creates new problems. This is a question to put to your lawyer with the actual form in hand.
• Sealing may be available. A withhold is the classic sealing scenario: the case ended without adjudication, so court-ordered sealing under Section 943.059 may be available once supervision ends, subject to the strict eligibility rules, including the list of offenses in Section 943.0584 that can never be sealed even with a withhold. We walk through sealing, expungement, and their limits in If Charges Are Dismissed, Do You Have a Criminal Record?

What a withhold does not do

This is where people get hurt by assuming a withhold works like an eraser. It does not.

What people assume	What is actually true
”The case is off my record”	The arrest, court file, and disposition are public records unless and until sealed. Background checks routinely surface withholds.
”It won’t count against me later”	Florida’s Criminal Punishment Code defines “conviction” as a determination of guilt “regardless of whether adjudication is withheld” (§ 921.0021): a withhold scores as prior record if you are ever sentenced again. See Florida’s Criminal Punishment Code: How the Sentencing Scoresheet Works for how that scoring actually works.
”It can’t upgrade a future charge”	Repeat-offense enhancements can count withholds. A second battery is a felony even where the first ended in a withhold, see Misdemeanor Criminal Charges in Florida and Battery and Aggravated Battery Charges in Florida.
”Immigration won’t treat it as a conviction”	Federal immigration law has its own definition of conviction, and most withholds meet it (next section).
”Sealing is automatic”	Sealing after a withhold requires an FDLE certificate and a court petition, and some offenses are permanently ineligible, including domestic violence battery, as we cover in Criminal Charges for Domestic Violence in Florida.

How long does a withhold of adjudication stay on your record?

Indefinitely, unless you take action to change that. Florida puts no expiry date on a criminal history record. There is no point at which a withhold drops off on its own, and finishing probation does not remove it. Section 948.04(2) ends your supervision and your exposure to a sentence. It does nothing at all to the record of the case.

What is left behind is two separate records:

• The court file, kept by the clerk of court in the county where the case was filed. Florida court records are public by default, and most clerks publish their dockets online.
• The criminal history record, kept by FDLE and built from the arrest. This is the one a background check reads.

Both last. A check run twenty years later can still show the arrest, the charge, and a disposition of “adjudication withheld,” which is why a case someone thinks of as long closed keeps resurfacing at the worst moments.

The only thing that shortens that timeline is a court order. Sealing under Section 943.059 makes the record confidential and exempt from public disclosure. Expunction under Section 943.0585 goes further. Neither one happens by itself after a withhold. Florida’s automatic sealing statute, Section 943.0595, reaches only records where no charging document was ever filed or where every count was dismissed or nolle prossed, so a withhold sits outside it. Someone has to petition.

On timing, § 943.059(1)(d) requires only that you are no longer under court supervision for that case, so the practical clock is the length of your probation rather than a waiting period stacked on top of it. The FDLE certificate of eligibility is valid for 12 months once issued (§ 943.059(2)(b)), so the petition should follow it promptly. Sealing is also a once-in-a-lifetime remedy: § 943.059(1)(e) requires that you have never secured a prior sealing or expunction of any Florida record. If you have more than one case, which one you spend it on is a decision worth making with a lawyer.

Sealing is not invisibility either. A sealed record is still disclosed to a defined list of agencies and employers set out in § 943.059, among them criminal justice agency employment, admission to The Florida Bar, and work in schools, child care and several licensed fields.

Can a withhold of adjudication be expunged in Florida?

Not on the ordinary path, and not quickly. There is a route, but it runs through sealing first and it takes more than a decade.

Direct expunction under § 943.0585(1) is written for cases that ended without any determination of guilt: no charging document was filed, or the charge was dismissed, nolle prossed, or ended in an acquittal or a not-guilty verdict. A withhold is none of those. Guilt was determined by a plea or a verdict, and only the adjudication was withheld, so the case does not qualify.

The route that does exist is § 943.0585(1)(h). Once a record has been sealed under § 943.059 for at least 10 years because adjudication was withheld, the person becomes eligible to petition to expunge it. The full sequence looks like this:

1. Finish probation, so you are no longer under court supervision for the case.
2. Apply to FDLE for a certificate of eligibility for sealing, petition the court, and obtain the sealing order under § 943.059.
3. Let the record sit sealed for the 10 years the statute requires.
4. Apply for a certificate of eligibility for expunction and petition the court again under § 943.0585.

The other eligibility rules apply at both stages. The offense cannot be one of those listed in Section 943.0584, which can never be sealed or expunged. Section 943.0585(1)(d) requires that you have never been adjudicated guilty of a criminal offense in Florida. And neither order can be demanded: § 943.0585(4)(e) says the section “does not confer any right to expunction” and that a petition may be denied at the court’s discretion.

What expunction adds is destruction rather than confidentiality. Under § 943.0585(4)(a), agencies holding the record must physically destroy or obliterate it, although FDLE retains a confidential copy released only on a court order. Section 943.0585(4)(b) then allows you to lawfully deny the arrest, with exceptions that include applying to a criminal justice agency, admission to The Florida Bar, and buying a firearm from a licensed dealer.

For most people whose case ended in a withhold, that makes sealing the realistic goal now and expunction a question for ten years after the seal. Which of the two is available, and when, turns on the specific charge and your full record, so it is worth confirming with a lawyer before counting on either.

The immigration trap: a withhold is still a “conviction” in federal immigration law

For a noncitizen, the single most dangerous assumption about a withhold is that it avoids immigration consequences. Federal law says otherwise. Under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(48)(A), a “conviction” for immigration purposes includes cases where “adjudication of guilt has been withheld,” so long as two things happened: a judge or jury found guilt (or the person entered a plea of guilty or no contest, or admitted sufficient facts) and the judge ordered “some form of punishment, penalty, or restraint” on the person’s liberty. Probation qualifies. Court costs can qualify.

That means the standard Florida withhold (a no contest plea, adjudication withheld, probation imposed) is generally a conviction in immigration court, no matter what it is under Florida law. That includes the good moral character analysis for naturalization, covered in Naturalization and a Criminal Record in Florida: What “Good Moral Character” Requires. A plea structured to protect a Florida record can still trigger removal proceedings, block naturalization, or bar relief. This is exactly why a noncitizen should never accept any plea, even one a criminal defense lawyer calls a win, without immigration-specific advice. We cover how criminal cases and immigration status interact in How Criminal Charges Can Affect Immigration Status in Florida, and our office handles both criminal defense and immigration matters precisely because these cases so often arrive tangled together.

What this means for your case

A withhold of adjudication is a genuinely valuable outcome under Florida law: no conviction is entered, probation replaces the penalty, and successful completion closes the case with sealing potentially available afterward. It is also rationed, barred for whole categories of charges, visible to anyone who looks, counted by Florida’s own sentencing code, and treated as a conviction by federal immigration law. Whether a withhold is a win in your case (and whether something better, like diversion or dismissal, is realistically on the table) depends on the charge, your record, your immigration status, and your goals. That evaluation belongs at the front of the case, not the end: the paths to the best outcomes close early, as we explain in What Do Pending Criminal Charges Mean in Florida? If you or a family member is facing charges in Broward County, contact MK Law: our criminal defense practice can evaluate whether a withhold is the right goal in your case, and the phone is answered 24/7.

Frequently asked questions

Is a withhold of adjudication a conviction in Florida?

Not under Florida law. When adjudication is withheld, no conviction is entered, and if probation is completed successfully, § 948.04(2) provides that you are released and not liable to sentence for the offense. But other legal systems apply their own definitions: federal immigration law counts most withholds as convictions, Florida’s sentencing code scores them as prior record, and other states or federal agencies may treat them differently.

Will a withhold of adjudication show up on a background check?

Usually, yes. The arrest and the court disposition are public records unless the record is later sealed. A background check will typically show the charge and a disposition of “adjudication withheld.” What it should not show is a conviction, but whether a particular screening company reports it accurately is another matter.

Can I say I have never been convicted of a crime?

Under Florida law’s definitions, a withhold means you were not convicted of that offense. But read the actual question before answering: many applications ask whether you have ever entered a plea, been arrested, or been placed on probation, and a withhold involves all three. Answer the question that was asked, accurately, and get legal advice when the form is ambiguous or the stakes are high.

Can a withhold of adjudication be sealed?

Often, yes. A plea with adjudication withheld is the classic case for court-ordered sealing under § 943.059, once supervision has ended and if you meet the eligibility rules. But it is not automatic: Florida generally allows only one sealing or expungement in a lifetime, and some offenses, including domestic violence battery, can never be sealed even with a withhold.

Does a withhold protect my immigration status?

Generally, no. Federal immigration law defines “conviction” to include withheld adjudications where there was a plea or finding of guilt plus any punishment, penalty, or restraint, and probation counts. A noncitizen should get immigration-specific legal advice before accepting any plea, including one with a withhold.

Can I own a gun after a withhold of adjudication on a felony?

This is one of the most litigated and least intuitive questions in this area, and the honest answer is: do not assume anything. Florida’s felon-in-possession statute turns on whether you were “convicted,” and how a withhold interacts with that definition (and with federal firearm law, which has its own rules) depends on the specifics of your case and is an area where the law has shifted. Before possessing a firearm after any felony case, even one that ended in a withhold, get a specific answer from a lawyer who has reviewed your disposition.