Can the court retain your record if a case was dismissed due to lack of prosecution?

Do you have any subsequent arrests? If not, you should consult a qualified criminal defense attorney who should be able to expunge your 1993 record.

Best to get a local lawyer to get it expunged so it doesn't

It can, it will it does. Your file was destroyed but not before it was entered / scanned into the system and it now exists as an electronic record. You do not need it sealed / expunged like you need water and air and food and shelter but you might want it sealed / expunged. If so then... Sealing is available in a case where you received a withhold of adjudication, and expunction is available in a case which was dismissed, nolle pros'd, no actioned or where you were found to have been not guilty. In Florida you can only seal or expunge one eligible (non-disqualified) offense in your lifetime. If you look at the following website you will learn everything you ever wanted to know about the sealing / expunction process: http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/content/getdoc/c83dd888-ef7a-448e-9a96-ba69fc4181f7/Seal-and-Expunge-Home.aspx The procedure is both quite detailed and somewhat painstaking but is also far from being rocket science. You can attempt to navigate it yourself (FDLE has tried to simplify it - again I refer you to the website above) but, assuming your eligibility, any criminal defense lawyer (anywhere in Florida - this can be done remotely and does not necessarily require a local attorney, although a local attorney may or may not be less expensive) will be able to accomplish the task with greater ease and likely in a shorter time period. That said I suspect that it doesn't much matter where you were arrested, what you were arrested for, what the final disposition was or whether or not you sealed / expunged the record. This is 2015 and we are forehead deep into the internet age, where nothing is private, sacred or truly hidden from public scrutiny. Sadly, sealing (and expunging) only applies to certain (not even to all) government agencies (for example if fingerprints, mugshots, DNA or anything else - including crime statistics bearing your name or identifying information - were uplaoded to the FBI database then a local Order of Expunction would not effect the Feds) and that it has no effect whatsoever on private (er, extortionist) enterprise, who compile and maintain arrest information and then demand that you pay them off to remove your information from their database and public access. Worse still, after you "buy back your information", then you can count on there being another private company lurking, somewhere, sometime, somehow, just waiting for you to pay them off as well. Its a seemingly never-ending vicious cycle. For better or for worse you are probably best advised to take the wind out of the sails by admitting your past issues / indiscretions to your present (or potential) employer, lender, landlord, etcetera, rather than waiting for them to find out on their own. I hope that I have been helpful in answering your question.

This is an example of the same confusion many people have. Once you are arrested and a case number is created, your case becomes part of the public record. Even if your case is dismissed, that does not mean the case disappears. As you suspected, the only way to "hide" the record of this case would be to expunge the matter if it qualifies. Beyond just your prior record, there are a list of enumerated crimes that do not allow for sealing or expungement. Based on the information you provided, preliminary it seems that your case would qualify, if in fact you have no prior adjudications and have never had a case sealed or expunged. With that being said, whether or not you NEED to have it sealed or expunged is up to you. While expunging a record does effectively "hide" it, there are various governmental agencies that will still be able to see the records of your case. Regardless, if you decide to proceed with the expungement, you should contact a lawyer who is familiar with the process as one little mistake can set you back months. I hope this helped answer your question, and best of luck to you!