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How can an adult view or get a copy of his juvenile record?

I'm doing a paper in college for my Government class. After talking with my dad, who works for a county sheriffs office as a background investigator, I decided to do my paper about juvenile records. According to him, a juvenile record that is closed cannot be opened under any condition. Most paper records are destoyed after an amount of time, but an indicator that the record once existed will remain. Case in point, he is doing an investigation on an individual who graduated from a police academy. Everything is in order but there is an indication in his background that reflects he has a juvenile record, and wont be hired because they can only go by his word of the incident. He claims that no one can get information, not even the person with the record. Is this true? Any recources?

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Attorney answers (2)

Reputation Level 11
The purpose of the privacy regarding juvenile records is to protect the juvenile. Just like medical records are protected against viewing by 3rd parties. The juvenile is entitled to see his records in addition law enforcement and others. The records are available to anyone who has a court order. Look at F.S. 943.053 and 985.04
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Reputation Level 10
The answer to your question can be found in Florida Statute 985.045 Court records, which states in pertinent part:
“(1) The clerk of the court shall make and keep records of all cases brought before it under this chapter. The court shall preserve the records pertaining to a child charged with committing a delinquent act or violation of law until the child reaches 24 years of age or reaches 26 years of age if he or she is a serious or habitual delinquent child, until 5 years after the last entry was made, or until 3 years after the death of the child, whichever is earlier, and may then destroy them, except that records made of traffic offenses in which there is no allegation of delinquency may be destroyed as soon as this can be reasonably accomplished. The court shall make official records of all petitions and orders filed in a case arising under this chapter and of any other pleadings, certificates, proofs of publication, summonses, warrants, and writs that are filed pursuant to the case.
(2) The clerk shall keep all official records required by this section separate from other records of the circuit court, except those records pertaining to motor vehicle violations, which shall be forwarded to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Except as provided in ss. 943.053 and 985.04(6)(b) and (7), official records required by this chapter are not open to inspection by the public, but may be inspected only upon order of the court by persons deemed by the court to have a proper interest therein, except that a child and the parents, guardians, or legal custodians of the child and their attorneys, law enforcement agencies, the Department of Juvenile Justice and its designees, the Parole Commission, the Department of Corrections, and the Justice Administrative Commission shall always have the right to inspect and copy any official record pertaining to the child. The court may permit authorized representatives of recognized organizations compiling statistics for proper purposes to inspect, and make abstracts from, official records under whatever conditions upon the use and disposition of such records the court may deem proper and may punish by contempt proceedings any violation of those conditions.”
The person you describe not only has a right to review his own record, but in the absence of a record has the right to have the Clerk of Court to certify that there is no record found under that name.

Amir Ladan
Carsten & Ladan, P.A.
www.carstenandladan.com
Main Offices - Orlando
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Other answers (2)

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Joseph Otto Pelikan

yes you can!!! i recently did that myself to get enlisted in the army... you only need to do a few things....

1st. go to your local police station and ask them to finger print you for an FBI background check.

2nd. send the information off to the FBI for the check itself.... this took me about a week total... they were very fast.

for full information on this go to http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/fprequest.html
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Joseph Otto Pelikan

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