Is a withhold of adjudication a conviction in Florida?

A withhold of adjudication means the court stayed and withheld the formal adjudication of guilt, so no judgment of conviction is entered on that charge. Under Fla. Stat. s. 948.01 the court, in its discretion, may withhold adjudication and place the defendant on probation instead of adjudicating guilt. Whether a withhold counts as a conviction depends on the legal context in which the question is asked: for many purposes under Florida law it is not treated as a conviction because no adjudication of guilt was entered, but other bodies of law, including federal immigration law, apply their own definitions and can treat the same disposition as a conviction. This is general legal information, not legal advice about any specific charge.

How does a withhold of adjudication differ from an adjudication of guilt?

An adjudication of guilt is a formal judgment of conviction entered by the court. A withhold of adjudication under Fla. Stat. s. 948.01 stays and withholds that judgment: the court finds the facts sufficient or accepts the plea but declines to enter a conviction, typically placing the defendant on probation. In the FDLE Clerk-of-Court data the two are the mutually exclusive outcomes that make up the adjudicated group. Across the extract, of the 3,606,915 charges a court adjudicated as either adjudicated guilty or adjudication withheld, 24.8% ended in a withhold and the rest in an adjudication of guilt.

How often do Florida courts withhold adjudication rather than convict?

The analysis covers 4,273,369 Florida charges in the public FDLE Criminal Justice Data Transparency Clerk-of-Court data (snapshot 2026-06-21). Of the 3,606,915 charges a court adjudicated, meaning resolved as adjudicated guilty or adjudication withheld, 24.8% ended in a withhold. The share differs sharply by offense level: about 29.2% of adjudicated misdemeanors versus about 15.9% of adjudicated felonies. Those are descriptive, uncontrolled rates over past records. They are not adjusted for charge severity, evidence strength, criminal history, plea terms, or statutory eligibility, they do not measure any prosecutor, office, or court, and they cannot predict the outcome of any specific case.

Can a withhold still affect immigration status?

Yes, potentially, and this is a common trap. Federal immigration law defines conviction on its own terms, and a disposition Florida treats as a withhold rather than a conviction can still be treated as a conviction for federal immigration purposes where there was a finding or admission of guilt together with some penalty or restraint. That means a withhold that avoids a Florida conviction does not necessarily avoid immigration consequences. Anyone who is not a U.S. citizen should have the specific disposition reviewed by immigration counsel before relying on a withhold; this general caution is not legal advice about any specific case.

Guide · Florida sentencing

What a withhold of adjudication means in Florida.

A withhold of adjudication is one of the most consequential, and most misunderstood, dispositions in Florida criminal practice. It is the point at which a court accepts the plea or finds the facts sufficient yet declines to enter a judgment of conviction. This is a working reference to what the statute actually authorizes, how a withhold differs from an adjudication of guilt, what it does and does not do to a record, the immigration trap that catches non-citizen clients, and what the statewide records show about how often withholds are recorded.

Free · search by charge and county

See the recorded withhold rate for a specific charge category in a specific Florida county, drawn from 4,273,369 charges of public FDLE data, with a downloadable CSV. No account, no upload.

Open the Florida adjudication-withheld data study →

Read the rates below as descriptive, not causal, and not predictive. The withhold shares are recorded rates across many different charges and counties. They are not adjusted for charge severity, evidence strength, criminal history, plea terms, or statutory eligibility, they do not measure any prosecutor, office, or court, and they are not a rate any specific case should expect. Counties and charge categories differ in case mix, so a higher or lower rate reflects what and who is in each group. This is not a ranking of counties by leniency, and nothing here is legal advice about any reader's eligibility.

What a withhold of adjudication is

Under Fla. Stat. s. 948.01, when a court places a defendant on probation it may, in its discretion, either adjudge the defendant guilty or stay and withhold the adjudication of guilt. A withhold is the second path: the court withholds the formal judgment, so no conviction is entered on that charge, and ordinarily places the defendant on probation instead. The statute frames this as a discretionary decision, not an entitlement, and it excepts an offense punishable by death from probation eligibility. Some other offenses and circumstances are statutorily limited, so whether a withhold is available on a particular charge is a charge-specific and history-specific question of law that has to be checked against the current statute.

Authority: Fla. Stat. s. 948.01 (the court may stay and withhold the adjudication of guilt and place a defendant on probation; an offense punishable by death is excepted).

How a withhold differs from a conviction

An adjudication of guilt is a formal judgment of conviction. A withhold stays and withholds that judgment: the court declines to enter the conviction. Those are the two mutually exclusive outcomes that make up the adjudicated group in the statewide data. Whether a withhold counts as a “conviction” is not a single yes-or-no answer; it depends on the body of law asking the question. For many purposes under Florida law a withhold is not treated as a conviction because no adjudication of guilt was entered. Other bodies of law, including federal immigration law discussed below, apply their own definitions and can reach the opposite result on the same disposition. That context sensitivity is exactly why a withhold is worth understanding precisely rather than as a shorthand for “not a conviction.”

What a withhold does and does not do

The effect of a withhold is not uniform across every consequence of a criminal case. It resolves the question of whether a conviction is entered, but its downstream effects on a record, on civil rights, and on immigration status each turn on a different rule. The table below separates them.

Effect area	With a withhold	What sets it
Judgment of conviction	None entered	The court stays and withholds the adjudication of guilt, so no formal conviction is entered on the charge (Fla. Stat. s. 948.01).
Sentence structure	Probation, typically	A withhold ordinarily accompanies a term of probation rather than a sentence entered on a conviction.
Record sealing	Can become eligible	Court-ordered sealing turns on adjudication NOT being entered as guilty on the current offense; a withhold satisfies that condition where a guilty adjudication would not (s. 943.059(1)(c)). Other requirements apply; some offenses are barred by statute.
Federal immigration status	Can still count as a conviction	Federal immigration law defines conviction on its own terms; a Florida withhold can still be treated as a conviction for immigration purposes. Have a non-citizen's disposition reviewed by immigration counsel.

Sealing a record after a withhold

A withhold is what makes court-ordered sealing possible on the current offense, but it is not sufficient on its own. Under Fla. Stat. s. 943.059(1)(c), a criminal history record is eligible for court-ordered sealing only where the person has not been adjudicated guilty of, or adjudicated delinquent for committing, any of the acts stemming from the arrest to which the petition to seal pertains. A withhold satisfies that condition where an adjudication of guilt would not, which is why the disposition matters so much to a client who asks about clearing a record. Other requirements still apply, some offenses are barred from sealing by statute even where adjudication was withheld, and the statute makes sealing discretionary: s. 943.059(4)(e) states that the section confers no right to sealing and that a request may be denied at the sole discretion of the court. Confirm eligibility against the current statute for the specific record.

Authority: Fla. Stat. s. 943.059 (court-ordered sealing; the current offense must not have been adjudicated guilty, and sealing is discretionary).

The immigration caveat

The most dangerous assumption about a withhold is that avoiding a Florida conviction avoids immigration consequences. It does not necessarily. Federal immigration law defines conviction on its own terms, and a disposition Florida treats as a withhold rather than a conviction can still be treated as a conviction for federal immigration purposes where there was a finding or admission of guilt together with some penalty or restraint on liberty. A withhold that keeps a charge off a Florida record can therefore still carry the full immigration weight of a conviction. For any client who is not a U.S. citizen, the specific disposition should be reviewed by immigration counsel before anyone relies on the withhold as protective. This is a general caution, not advice about any specific case.

What the statewide data shows

In the public FDLE Criminal Justice Data Transparency Clerk-of-Court data, of the 3,606,915 charges a Florida court adjudicated, meaning resolved as adjudicated guilty or adjudication withheld, 24.8% ended in a withhold rather than a conviction. The single sharpest split is by offense level: withholds are far more common among adjudicated misdemeanors, about 29.2%, than among adjudicated felonies, about 15.9%. Across the 67 counties with a reliable sample, the overall withhold rate ranges from about 7.2% to 52.7%. That level split and county spread largely reflect the different mix of offenses, statutory eligibility, and local plea practice at each level and in each county, not a judgment about how lenient any of them is.

Figures reproduced from the Florida adjudication-withheld data study, derived from public FDLE Criminal Justice Data Transparency (CJDT) Clerk-of-Court data (snapshot 2026-06-21; 4,273,369 charges).

What the aggregate data does and does not tell you

The rates above pool dispositions from 1951-12-22 to 2026-06-20 (96.9 percent from 2000 or later; median disposition year 2022) and are not time-normalized, so charging and plea practice changed over the span. The value of the aggregate is orientation: it tells you how common a withhold is at each offense level and roughly how much it varies by county. It does not, and cannot, predict whether a withhold is available or likely on a specific charge, which depends on the offense, the facts, the client's history, and statutory eligibility. Any cell with fewer than 10 adjudicated charges is suppressed for reliability.

The data study breaks the withhold rate down by charge category, offense level, and county, so you can pull the recorded picture for the specific charge in front of you, with a downloadable CSV.

Open the Florida adjudication-withheld data study →

Reference

For the full breakdown of the recorded withhold rate by charge category, offense level, and county, with the methodology and a downloadable CSV, see the Florida adjudication-withheld data study. For the full set of Florida charge references, start at the Florida criminal-defense references hub.

Common questions

Is a withhold of adjudication a conviction in Florida?: A withhold of adjudication means the court stayed and withheld the formal adjudication of guilt, so no judgment of conviction is entered on that charge. Under Fla. Stat. s. 948.01 the court, in its discretion, may withhold adjudication and place the defendant on probation instead of adjudicating guilt. Whether a withhold counts as a conviction depends on the legal context in which the question is asked: for many purposes under Florida law it is not treated as a conviction because no adjudication of guilt was entered, but other bodies of law, including federal immigration law, apply their own definitions and can treat the same disposition as a conviction. This is general legal information, not legal advice about any specific charge.
When can a Florida court withhold adjudication?: Fla. Stat. s. 948.01 gives the court discretion, when it places a defendant on probation, to either adjudge the defendant guilty or stay and withhold the adjudication of guilt. The statute frames it as a discretionary decision, not an entitlement, and it excludes an offense punishable by death from probation eligibility. Beyond that, some offenses and circumstances are statutorily limited, so eligibility for a withhold on a particular charge is a charge-specific and history-specific question of law that has to be checked against the current statute; the aggregate rates on the companion data study describe only how often withholds were recorded historically and say nothing about any specific charge's eligibility.
Does a withhold of adjudication let a record be sealed in Florida?: A withhold is what makes court-ordered sealing possible on the current offense, but it is not sufficient by itself. Under Fla. Stat. s. 943.059(1)(c), a criminal history record is eligible for court-ordered sealing only where the person has not been adjudicated guilty of, or adjudicated delinquent for committing, any of the acts stemming from the arrest to which the petition to seal pertains. A withhold satisfies that condition where an adjudication of guilt would not. Other requirements still apply, some offenses are barred from sealing by statute even where adjudication was withheld, and s. 943.059(4)(e) makes clear that sealing is discretionary and a request may be denied at the sole discretion of the court. Confirm eligibility against the current statute for the specific record.
How does a withhold of adjudication differ from an adjudication of guilt?: An adjudication of guilt is a formal judgment of conviction entered by the court. A withhold of adjudication under Fla. Stat. s. 948.01 stays and withholds that judgment: the court finds the facts sufficient or accepts the plea but declines to enter a conviction, typically placing the defendant on probation. In the FDLE Clerk-of-Court data the two are the mutually exclusive outcomes that make up the adjudicated group. Across the extract, of the 3,606,915 charges a court adjudicated as either adjudicated guilty or adjudication withheld, 24.8% ended in a withhold and the rest in an adjudication of guilt.
How often do Florida courts withhold adjudication rather than convict?: The analysis covers 4,273,369 Florida charges in the public FDLE Criminal Justice Data Transparency Clerk-of-Court data (snapshot 2026-06-21). Of the 3,606,915 charges a court adjudicated, meaning resolved as adjudicated guilty or adjudication withheld, 24.8% ended in a withhold. The share differs sharply by offense level: about 29.2% of adjudicated misdemeanors versus about 15.9% of adjudicated felonies. Those are descriptive, uncontrolled rates over past records. They are not adjusted for charge severity, evidence strength, criminal history, plea terms, or statutory eligibility, they do not measure any prosecutor, office, or court, and they cannot predict the outcome of any specific case.
Can a withhold still affect immigration status?: Yes, potentially, and this is a common trap. Federal immigration law defines conviction on its own terms, and a disposition Florida treats as a withhold rather than a conviction can still be treated as a conviction for federal immigration purposes where there was a finding or admission of guilt together with some penalty or restraint. That means a withhold that avoids a Florida conviction does not necessarily avoid immigration consequences. Anyone who is not a U.S. citizen should have the specific disposition reviewed by immigration counsel before relying on a withhold; this general caution is not legal advice about any specific case.

This guide is general legal information for practitioners, not legal advice, and the figures are descriptive aggregates over past public records, not a prediction of any specific case. Confirm every rule against the current statute and the court's order, and confirm any immigration effect with immigration counsel, before relying on it.