BenchRecon Data Study · Florida
How often Florida courts withhold adjudication, 3,606,915 adjudicated charges analyzed.
Of the 3,606,915 Florida charges a court adjudicated, meaning resolved as adjudicated guilty or adjudication withheld, in the state's public FDLE Criminal Justice Data Transparency (CJDT) Clerk-of-Court data, 24.8% ended in a withhold of adjudication rather than a conviction. We report that recorded share statewide, by offense level, within each high-volume charge category, and by county. The split is wide, about 29.2% of adjudicated misdemeanors versus 15.9% of adjudicated felonies, and across counties the overall rate ranges from about 7.2% to 52.7%.
Read these as descriptive, not causal, and not predictive. These rates are not adjusted for charge severity, evidence strength, criminal history, plea terms, or case facts, they do not measure prosecutor, office, or court leniency, and they are not a rate any specific case should expect. Counties and charge categories differ systematically in case mix, local charging and plea practice, and how many charges are statutorily ineligible for a withhold, so the differences below largely reflect what and who is in each group, not how lenient an office is. Nothing here ranks one county or office against another, and nothing here is legal advice about any reader's eligibility.
A withhold of adjudication (Fla. Stat. s. 948.01) means the court withheld a formal judgment of guilt; some offenses are ineligible by statute. We report only the observed historical rate. The denominator is adjudicated charges only; dismissed, diverted, and acquitted charges are excluded. Dispositions span 1951-12-22 to 2026-06-20 (96.9% from 2000 or later; median disposition year 2022); the figures are not time-normalized.
Aggregate analysis. Reproducible from public records. No individual defendant, charge, or case is identified.
Statewide and by offense level
The recorded share of adjudicated Florida charges that ended in a withhold of adjudication, statewide and split by offense level. As the caveat above explains, these averages pool decades of records across very different charges and counties; the same caution applies to every table on this page.
| Adjudicated charges | Withheld | Adjudicated guilty | Withhold rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3,606,915 | 892,730 | 2,714,185 | 24.8% |
The single sharpest split is by offense level: among adjudicated charges, withholds are far more common for misdemeanors than felonies. That largely reflects the different mix of offenses, statutory eligibility, and plea practice at each level, not a judgment about either.
| Offense level | Adjudicated | Withheld | Guilty | Withhold rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felony | 1,160,982 | 184,729 | 976,253 | 15.9% |
| Misdemeanor | 2,047,797 | 597,330 | 1,450,467 | 29.2% |
Methodology & limitations
Source & method
- Source: public Florida FDLE Criminal Justice Data Transparency (CJDT) Clerk-of-Court case data. Snapshot analyzed: 2026-06-21.
- Metric: the withhold share is the count of charges resolved as adjudication withheld divided by the count resolved as adjudicated guilty or adjudication withheld (the “adjudicated” denominator). The grain is one charge, not one case.
- Denominator scope: only adjudicated charges count. Dismissed, diverted, acquitted, and procedural dispositions are excluded, so the share is measured against the charges a court actually adjudicated, not all filings.
- What a withhold is: a withhold of adjudication under Fla. Stat. s. 948.01 means the court withheld a formal judgment of guilt; some offenses are statutorily ineligible. We report only the observed rate, not any reader's eligibility, and this is not legal advice.
- Cuts: statewide; by offense level; by the 10 highest-volume charge categories (statute-chapter groupings) and, within each, by level; by the 12 highest-volume counties; and the lead category (Marijuana-Possess) by county.
- Small cells suppressed: any cell with fewer than 10 adjudicated charges is excluded from every figure.
- Reproducible: every figure is regenerated by a verification script run against the public FDLE CJDT source data, and the aggregate is published as a downloadable CSV.
What the data does NOT show
- Not causal. Not predictive. Not a ranking. These rates are not adjusted for charge severity, evidence strength, criminal history, plea terms, or case facts. They do not measure the leniency or performance of any prosecutor, office, or court, and they are not a rate any specific case should expect. A county rate is not a measure of how lenient that county is.
- Case mix differs by group. Counties and charge categories differ in the offenses charged, local plea and diversion practice, and how many charges are statutorily ineligible for a withhold. A higher or lower withhold share reflects what and who is in that group, not what an office did.
- Eligibility is not modeled. Some offenses cannot receive a withhold by statute. A category that mixes eligible and ineligible offenses will show a lower rate for reasons of law, not practice.
- Coarse charge categories. A statute-chapter grouping mixes offenses of very different severity, so even the within-category tables do not hold severity constant.
- Not time-normalized. The figures pool every disposition in the extract regardless of year (1951-12-22 to 2026-06-20), and charging and plea practice changed over that span.
- No individual defendant, charge, or case is identified. This study reports aggregates only.
By charge category and offense level
For each of Florida's highest-volume charge categories, the withhold rate among adjudicated charges statewide and split by offense level. Looking within a charge category narrows, but does not eliminate, the case-mix problem: a statute-chapter grouping still mixes offenses of very different severity and statutory eligibility, and the levels still differ in plea practice. Read these as descriptive within-category rates, not as a ranking.
Drug Abuse Prevention and Control (703,075 adjudicated statewide, 21.5% withheld)
| Offense level | Adjudicated | Withheld | Guilty | Withhold rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felony | 359,640 | 62,177 | 297,463 | 17.3% |
| Misdemeanor | 291,359 | 76,424 | 214,935 | 26.2% |
Driver Licenses (562,776 adjudicated statewide, 38.2% withheld)
| Offense level | Adjudicated | Withheld | Guilty | Withhold rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felony | 34,054 | 3,754 | 30,300 | 11% |
| Misdemeanor | 486,759 | 199,071 | 287,688 | 40.9% |
Theft, Robbery, and Related Crimes (402,870 adjudicated statewide, 19.6% withheld)
| Offense level | Adjudicated | Withheld | Guilty | Withhold rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felony | 188,193 | 27,302 | 160,891 | 14.5% |
| Misdemeanor | 173,905 | 44,269 | 129,636 | 25.5% |
State Uniform Traffic Control (319,390 adjudicated statewide, 20.7% withheld)
| Offense level | Adjudicated | Withheld | Guilty | Withhold rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felony | 39,186 | 2,729 | 36,457 | 7% |
| Misdemeanor | 263,924 | 61,344 | 202,580 | 23.2% |
Burglary and Trespass (264,180 adjudicated statewide, 14.7% withheld)
| Offense level | Adjudicated | Withheld | Guilty | Withhold rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felony | 100,894 | 14,957 | 85,937 | 14.8% |
| Misdemeanor | 145,446 | 21,491 | 123,955 | 14.8% |
Assault; Battery; Culpable Negligence (261,725 adjudicated statewide, 23.7% withheld)
| Offense level | Adjudicated | Withheld | Guilty | Withhold rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felony | 98,574 | 21,618 | 76,956 | 21.9% |
| Misdemeanor | 142,824 | 36,501 | 106,323 | 25.6% |
Obstructing Justice (180,890 adjudicated statewide, 19.1% withheld)
| Offense level | Adjudicated | Withheld | Guilty | Withhold rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felony | 18,888 | 4,823 | 14,065 | 25.5% |
| Misdemeanor | 149,345 | 27,843 | 121,502 | 18.6% |
Weapons and Firearms (76,303 adjudicated statewide, 20.1% withheld)
| Offense level | Adjudicated | Withheld | Guilty | Withhold rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felony | 52,729 | 8,405 | 44,324 | 15.9% |
| Misdemeanor | 17,642 | 5,960 | 11,682 | 33.8% |
Arson and Criminal Mischief (65,807 adjudicated statewide, 22.6% withheld)
| Offense level | Adjudicated | Withheld | Guilty | Withhold rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felony | 14,253 | 3,417 | 10,836 | 24% |
| Misdemeanor | 44,797 | 10,118 | 34,679 | 22.6% |
Abuse of Children (65,029 adjudicated statewide, 10.2% withheld)
| Offense level | Adjudicated | Withheld | Guilty | Withhold rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felony | 58,514 | 4,846 | 53,668 | 8.3% |
| Misdemeanor | 3,923 | 1,234 | 2,689 | 31.5% |
By county (all charges)
Withhold rate among adjudicated charges in Florida's 12 highest-volume counties. Across all 67 counties with a reliable sample, the overall rate ranges from about 7.2% to 52.7%, but that range reflects differences in the charges adjudicated and local plea practice as much as anything else. It is not a measure of how lenient a county is.
| County | Adjudicated | Withheld | Guilty | Withhold rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami-Dade | 304,287 | 82,354 | 221,933 | 27.1% |
| Hillsborough | 280,589 | 71,192 | 209,397 | 25.4% |
| Volusia | 256,073 | 85,332 | 170,741 | 33.3% |
| Bay | 248,603 | 58,125 | 190,478 | 23.4% |
| Escambia | 247,251 | 46,244 | 201,007 | 18.7% |
| Pinellas | 201,428 | 36,561 | 164,867 | 18.2% |
| Duval | 195,985 | 70,916 | 125,069 | 36.2% |
| Palm Beach | 163,154 | 35,567 | 127,587 | 21.8% |
| Sarasota | 126,247 | 23,775 | 102,472 | 18.8% |
| Orange | 125,460 | 48,394 | 77,066 | 38.6% |
| Polk | 106,287 | 25,307 | 80,980 | 23.8% |
| Pasco | 97,490 | 21,340 | 76,150 | 21.9% |
A single charge, across counties: Marijuana-Possess
Holding the charge category fixed at Marijuana-Possess sharpens the geographic picture, the offense is roughly comparable statewide, yet the withhold rate among adjudicated marijuana-possess charges still varies widely by county. In this table it runs from about 49.4% in Seminole to about 67.4% in Sumter. That spread reflects local charging, plea, and diversion practice and the underlying case mix; it is descriptive variation, not a ranking of how lenient a county is.
| County | Adjudicated | Withheld | Guilty | Withhold rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sumter | 1,986 | 1,338 | 648 | 67.4% |
| Gadsden | 672 | 441 | 231 | 65.6% |
| Flagler | 105 | 68 | 37 | 64.8% |
| Dixie | 14 | 9 | 5 | 64.3% |
| Manatee | 1,548 | 994 | 554 | 64.2% |
| Miami-Dade | 13,341 | 8,404 | 4,937 | 63% |
| Broward | 352 | 212 | 140 | 60.2% |
| Orange | 616 | 367 | 249 | 59.6% |
| Clay | 1,199 | 670 | 529 | 55.9% |
| Volusia | 7,514 | 4,169 | 3,345 | 55.5% |
| Brevard | 228 | 125 | 103 | 54.8% |
| Duval | 9,123 | 4,725 | 4,398 | 51.8% |
| Osceola | 752 | 389 | 363 | 51.7% |
| Nassau | 531 | 269 | 262 | 50.7% |
| Pasco | 3,125 | 1,572 | 1,553 | 50.3% |
| Seminole | 447 | 221 | 226 | 49.4% |
Cite this analysis
Journalists and researchers, please link to this page as the source, and please preserve the descriptive, not-causal framing when you cite the figures.
BenchRecon, “Florida adjudication-withheld rates by charge category, county, and offense level” (descriptive, uncontrolled aggregates; FDLE CJDT Clerk-of-Court data, 2026-06-21). https://benchrecon.com/florida/adjudication-withheld-rates
Download the full aggregate as a CSV file to reproduce or re-analyze any figure. See also the Florida case disposition outcomes by charge and circuit study, the Florida sentencing outcomes by county and charge study, and the Florida criminal statutes reference.
Get the comparables for your charge and county
BenchRecon's Sentencing Comparables work from this same public data, returning the outcome distribution for a specific charge in a specific Florida county, with every figure cited to the underlying record.
Common questions
- What does this data measure and where does it come from?
- It is a descriptive, uncontrolled aggregate analysis of Florida's public FDLE Criminal Justice Data Transparency (CJDT) statewide Clerk-of-Court case data. The single metric is the share of adjudicated charges, meaning charges the court resolved as adjudicated guilty or adjudication withheld, that ended in a withhold rather than a formal conviction. It is reproducible from the public source data and identifies no individual.
- What is a withhold of adjudication?
- Under Fla. Stat. s. 948.01, a court may withhold adjudication of guilt, typically alongside probation, so that no formal judgment of conviction is entered. Some offenses are ineligible by statute. This page only describes the observed historical rate at which adjudicated charges were withheld; it is not legal advice and makes no claim about whether any particular charge is eligible.
- How often is adjudication withheld in Florida?
- Across the full extract, of 3,606,915 adjudicated charges (adjudicated guilty or adjudication withheld), 24.8% ended in a withhold. The share differs sharply by offense level and by charge: among adjudicated charges it is about 29.2% for misdemeanors and about 15.9% for felonies. Those are descriptive rates over past records and cannot predict the outcome of any specific case, which depends on its charge, facts, history, and statutory eligibility.
- Does a higher county rate mean that county is more lenient or grants more withholds?
- No. These are descriptive, uncontrolled rates. They are not adjusted for charge severity, evidence strength, criminal history, plea terms, or the facts of any case. Counties differ in the mix of offenses charged, local charging and plea practice, diversion alternatives, and how many cases involve statutorily ineligible offenses, so a higher or lower withhold share reflects what and who is in each group at least as much as anything any prosecutor, judge, or office did. Nothing here measures the performance of any office, prosecutor, or judge.
- Why exclude dismissed, diverted, and acquitted charges?
- Because the question this study answers is narrow: when a Florida court adjudicates a charge, how often does it withhold adjudication instead of entering a conviction. The denominator is therefore only the adjudicated charges (adjudicated guilty or adjudication withheld). Dismissed, diverted, acquitted, and procedural dispositions are a separate question covered by the companion case-disposition study and are excluded here so the withhold share is measured against the right base.
- Why are some counties, levels, or charge categories missing?
- Any individual cell with fewer than 10 adjudicated charges is suppressed for statistical reliability and privacy. A cell with too few adjudicated charges of a given category or level in the extract is therefore omitted from that table.
- Can I use these figures for a specific case?
- No. These are unadjusted statewide, county, level, and charge-category aggregates and cannot predict any specific case, which depends on its charge, facts, history, and statutory eligibility. For sentencing comparables tailored to a specific charge and county, see the Sentencing Comparables tool, which works from the same public data and cites every figure.