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Miami Dade Background Check
Use Miami-Dade Clerk’s criminal case services to locate felony or misdemeanor records and request a local history disposition letter or certified copy where needed.
Choose a case document, local letter, or Florida history
For a Miami-Dade County background-check task, first ask what the receiving organization actually requires. The Clerk handles Circuit Criminal and County Criminal records and offers a certified criminal-history disposition letter reporting a local case-record search. A letter, an individual judgment, and a Florida repository report answer different questions. The local letter does not establish a nationwide history.
If the requirement names a particular judgment or disposition, identify that filing rather than buying a general search letter. If it specifies an agency-authorized fingerprint screening, follow that agency’s instructions. FDLE’s ORI route sends results to the recipient authorized by that identifier; the requesting agency, not FDLE, supplies the ORI.
Find the criminal case before ordering
Open the Clerk’s Criminal Justice Online Case Search from the Sources below. Choose the appropriate search method, complete the fields marked as required, and open a matching record card. Keep the defendant’s name, date of birth where available, case number, case year, division, and document description together. Compare identifiers before treating a shared-name result as the same person.
For a document shown in the case, open Dockets, expand the entry for the required filing, and select its image icon to start the certified-copy route. Read the entry and image carefully: the charging document tells you what was alleged, while the judgment or other disposition addresses the court’s outcome. The online service expressly says electronic access is not the official court record and does not guarantee completeness or timeliness.
Request the local disposition letter or certified copy
The Criminal Court page has a separate Request a Disposition Letter link. It permits online, mail, and in-person requests; its in-person letter service is available at district court locations. Do not confuse that route with selecting a single docket image. State which product is needed and, for mail, provide the defendant’s name, case number, case year, date of birth, and a self-addressed stamped envelope.
The criminal-history copy page lists certified copies at $7 and adds a search charge of $2 per name for each year searched when the year or case number is unknown. These are different fee units: two names or a wider year range can increase the search portion. Confirm the total for the requested product before paying; the pages do not publish a guaranteed turnaround for every local request.
Use the correct suite and payment method
Mail to Miami-Dade County, Criminal Division, Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building, 1351 NW 12th Street, Miami, FL 33125. Use Suite 9000 for felonies, Suite 8100 for misdemeanors, or Suite 124 for traffic. The history-copy page also identifies public computers at Suite 9000 for an in-person online history check.
Mail payments must be a cashier’s check or money order payable to Clerk of the Courts; personal checks are not accepted. Online payment accepts Visa, Discover, Mastercard, and American Express. In-person options additionally include cash, cashier’s check, and money order. For routing or an unpriced request, the Clerk lists 305-275-1155.
When the request really needs statewide coverage
FDLE is Florida’s criminal-history repository. Its Instant Search costs $24 plus a $1 card-processing fee and produces immediately available, printable or emailable results that are not certified. The staff-run certified/non-certified search costs $24 and returns results by regular U.S. Mail. Published processing is five business days for non-certified results or six to seven for certified results, excluding mail delivery.
Use those products only when they match the recipient’s instructions. Paying for a Florida search does not turn a county letter into a national report, and paying for certification does not resolve a mistaken identity. Keep the search scope, date, and source with any result you pass on.
Deal with missing records and identity errors
A missing web result is not a certificate that no record exists. Recheck the name and filing court, and ask the Clerk about the official file or a restricted document. The Criminal Records page directs readers to sealing, expungement, and public-information redaction resources; an ordinary public search should not be expected to reveal every restricted record.
For suspected identity misuse, the Clerk says it cannot change names on original court records and directs notification to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office at 305-547-0100. For an error in a Florida repository report, FDLE instead directs readers to its Criminal History Record Maintenance Section. Keep the disputed result and the supporting court document so the correct office can investigate the precise error.
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