Overview
An arrest — even one that never led to charges, or ended in dismissal or acquittal — can live on indefinitely through commercial mugshot websites, “arrest news” aggregators, and background-data brokers. These sites scrape booking photographs from sheriff and county databases, republish them alongside your name, and rely on search engines to keep them at the top of results for years. Some have historically demanded payment to take them down.
Florida has outlawed that business model. Piotrowski Law Firm enforces the removal rights Florida law gives to people in Miami-Dade and Broward County — and pursues every statutory remedy the law provides against publishers who ignore them.
Florida’s mugshot removal law: Fla. Stat. §901.43
Under Section 901.43, Florida Statutes, a person whose arrest booking photograph has been published or disseminated — or their legal representative — may send a written removal request to the registered agent of the person or entity that published it. The statute then imposes hard obligations on the publisher:
- Removal within 10 calendar days. The photograph must be removed within 10 calendar days of receipt of the written request.
- Removal must be free. The photograph must be removed without charge. Businesses that publish arrest booking photographs may not solicit or accept a fee or any other form of payment for removal. “Pay-to-remove” is itself unlawful in Florida.
- Court enforcement. If the publisher does not comply, the person may bring a civil action to enjoin continued publication or dissemination.
How enforcement unfolds
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Day 0
Written removal request served
The statutory request is delivered in writing to the publisher’s registered agent. Receipt is documented and the 10-calendar-day clock starts.
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Day 1–10
The statutory compliance window
The publisher’s only lawful move: remove the photograph, free of charge. Soliciting payment during this window is itself a violation.
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Day 11+
Civil action & injunction
If the photograph is still up, suit is filed for an injunction. The statute directs the court to award reasonable attorney’s fees and costs of obtaining and enforcing it — paid by the publisher.
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Injunction entered
The meter runs
Every day of noncompliance with the injunction accrues a civil penalty of $1,000/day — or $5,000/day if the publisher republished after a removal — on top of the fee award.
What noncompliance costs a publisher
The Florida Legislature did not leave §901.43 toothless. A publisher that ignores a proper removal request and forces the matter into court faces escalating, statutorily defined exposure:
- $1,000 per day. The court may impose a civil penalty of $1,000 per day for noncompliance with an injunction ordering removal. A publisher that stalls for a month after an injunction issues faces $30,000 in penalties for that month alone.
- $5,000 per day for republication. If a publisher removes a photograph and then republishes or redisseminates it, the daily penalty rises to $5,000 per day for noncompliance with the injunction.
- Mandatory attorney’s fees and costs. The statute provides that the court shall award reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs related to the issuance and enforcement of the injunction. This is not discretionary — a publisher that loses pays the penalties and the fees it forced the client to incur.
- A per-se unfair and deceptive trade practice. Refusing to remove after a written request — or republishing after one — constitutes an unfair or deceptive trade practice under Part II of Chapter 501, Florida Statutes (FDUTPA). That opens a second, independent avenue of liability, including actual damages and an additional fee-shifting provision.
| Provision | What it requires | Consequence of violation |
|---|---|---|
| §901.43(2), Fla. Stat. | Remove the booking photograph within 10 calendar days of a written request to the registered agent — free of charge. No fee may be solicited or accepted for removal. | Civil action for injunction; mandatory attorney’s fees & costs |
| §901.43(3), Fla. Stat. | Comply with an injunction ordering removal. | $1,000 / day |
| §901.43(4), Fla. Stat. | Do not republish or redisseminate a photograph after removal. | $5,000 / day |
| Ch. 501, Part II (FDUTPA) | Refusal to remove after written request — or republication after one — is a per-se unfair or deceptive trade practice. | Actual damages plus a second, independent fee-shifting claim |
| Days of noncompliance | Standard tier ($1,000/day) | Republication tier ($5,000/day) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 days | $10,000 | $50,000 |
| 30 days | $30,000 | $150,000 |
| 90 days | $90,000 | $450,000 |
| 180 days | $180,000 | $900,000 |
| Every row is before the mandatory award of the client’s attorney’s fees and court costs, which §901.43 directs the court to add. | ||
In short: under Florida law, every day a publisher keeps a photograph up after being ordered to remove it is a day the meter runs — at $1,000 or $5,000 per day — with the publisher also underwriting the cost of the lawsuit against it.
What that exposure looks like in practice
The scenarios below are illustrative hypotheticals — worked examples of the statute’s own arithmetic, not case results or settlements of this firm. They show what a publisher’s decision to ignore a removal request can turn into once a court is involved.
The slow walker
A mugshot site ignores the written request, forces suit, then takes 45 days to comply after the injunction issues.
$45,000+plus mandatory fees & costs
45 days × $1,000/day, before the court adds the client’s attorney’s fees and costs of enforcement.
The repeat offender
A site removes the photo, then quietly republishes it on a sister domain. An injunction issues; the operator stalls for 30 days.
$150,000+plus mandatory fees & costs
30 days × $5,000/day at the republication tier, before fees, costs, and the FDUTPA claim.
The pay-to-remove operation
A site demands $399 to “expedite” removal — conduct §901.43 flatly prohibits — then ignores the injunction for a quarter.
$90,000+plus FDUTPA damages & two fee awards
90 days × $1,000/day, stacked with an unfair-and-deceptive-trade-practice claim carrying its own damages and fee-shifting.
The figures above are hypothetical illustrations of the civil penalties authorized by Fla. Stat. §901.43 and remedies available under Ch. 501, Part II, Florida Statutes. They are not case results, settlements, or outcomes obtained by this firm, and they do not predict the outcome of any particular matter. Penalties are imposed by a court and depend on the facts of each case.
Notice to publishers, website operators, and data brokers
If you operate a website or service that publishes Florida arrest booking photographs and you have received a removal request from this firm on behalf of a client, be advised of the firm’s standard practice in these matters:
- Requests are served in writing on your registered agent in the form the statute prescribes, and the 10-calendar-day clock is documented and tracked from the date of receipt.
- Soliciting or accepting payment for removal will itself be documented as a violation of §901.43(2) and Part II of Chapter 501.
- If the photograph is not removed within the statutory period, the firm is prepared to file a civil action seeking an injunction, the daily civil penalties described above, and the mandatory award of attorney’s fees and costs that §901.43 directs the court to enter.
- Republication after removal is monitored and, where found, pursued at the enhanced $5,000-per-day penalty tier.
Compliance within the statutory window costs a publisher nothing. Noncompliance is, by the Legislature’s own design, expensive.
Beyond the mugshot sites: cleaning up the record itself
Removing a photograph from a private website treats the symptom. Where a client is eligible, we pair §901.43 enforcement with the deeper remedy: sealing or expunging the underlying record under Fla. Stat. §943.0585 and §943.059, so that the source material the aggregators scrape is itself removed from public view. We also evaluate, where the facts support it, claims arising from published reports that are false or misleading — for example, a site that continues to report an arrest without reporting that charges were dropped.
What we do for clients
- Audit. We identify where your booking photograph and arrest information appear — mugshot sites, aggregators, data brokers, and cached search results.
- Demand. We locate each publisher’s registered agent and serve the written statutory removal request that starts the 10-day clock.
- Enforce. If a publisher does not comply, we file suit for an injunction, daily penalties, and the mandatory fee award.
- Resolve the root. Where you qualify, we seal or expunge the underlying record so there is nothing left to scrape.
Talk to a Miami mugshot removal attorney today
If your booking photo is being used against you online, Florida law is on your side — and it has teeth. Your initial consultation is free and confidential, and our phones are answered 24/7. Request a consultation.
This page provides general information about Fla. Stat. §901.43 and related Florida law and is not legal advice. Statutory penalties described above are imposed by a court and depend on the facts and procedural posture of each matter; laws change and every case is different. Reading this page or contacting the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please consult a licensed attorney about your specific situation.