Florida’s Romeo and Juliet Law 2026 – All You Need To Know

Maybe your seventeen-year-old is dating someone who just turned nineteen, and someone said the words “statutory rape.” Maybe you’re the nineteen-year-old, scared that a relationship that felt completely normal could put your name on a registry for life.

Florida’s Romeo and Juliet law doesn’t make an age-gap relationship legal. What it does is give certain people already convicted of a close-in-age offense a way to petition a judge and get off the sex offender registry. That’s a narrower fix than most people expect, and it matters.

Robert B. Fisher has spent decades in Central Florida courtrooms sorting out which cases qualify and which don’t. If you’re staring down this statute right now, that distinction could shape the rest of your life.

Key Takeaways

• Florida’s age of consent is effectively 18. Under Florida Statute 794.05, the offense aimed at older partners applies only when the older person is 24 or older and the partner is 16 or 17.
• The Romeo and Juliet law, Florida Statute 943.04354, doesn’t stop a charge. It lets someone already convicted petition to leave the sex offender registry.
• The age gap has to be 4 years or less, and the victim had to be at least 13 at the time.
• A judge can deny the petition, and if the court denies it, the person cannot petition again for removal of the registration requirement.
• A minor’s consent is never a defense at trial, no matter who started the relationship or what anyone believed about the other person’s age.

If any of this sounds like your situation, don’t wait. Contact our firm today for a free consultation before you talk to anyone else about the case.

What Is Florida’s Romeo and Juliet Law?

Section 943.04354 lets certain offenders file a motion in state court to remove the registration requirement if they meet strict criteria. That’s the whole function. It doesn’t erase a charge, and it doesn’t stop police from making an arrest.

Florida enacted the law in 2007, named after Shakespeare’s teenage lovers, out of concern that high-school-age youth were landing on the registry for consensual relationships with peers.

It separates people who pose a real risk to children from those who had consensual sex with someone close to their own age. It does not make an 18-year-old’s relationship with a 15-year-old legal. It only opens a path to petition after a conviction.

Who Qualifies for Registry Relief?

Three things have to line up before a judge will even consider your petition:

• Age and consent. The victim was at least 13 and under 18, the offender no more than 4 years older at the time of the offense, and the victim consented to the sexual conduct.
• A clean record. You have no other conviction, adjudication of delinquency, or withhold of adjudication under Florida’s sexual battery, lewd or lascivious, sexual performance by a child, or computer-transmission statutes.
• Registration basis. You must be required to register as a sexual offender or predator solely because of that one qualifying offense.

Miss any one of those, and the petition goes nowhere. You file in the circuit court that handled the original case, whether in Seminole County, Orange County, or elsewhere, and the judge there has full discretion over the outcome.

The “Under-24 Rule” Isn’t the Same Thing

This is where a lot of online articles get sloppy. Florida Statute 794.05 makes it a second-degree felony for a person 24 or older to engage in sexual activity with someone 16 or 17. That is a courtroom defense that can stop a charge before conviction.

The Romeo and Juliet law, by contrast, only applies after someone is already convicted and needs off the registry. Confusing the two has cost real people time in a courtroom they didn’t need to be in.

How Do You Petition to Get Off the Registry?

The state attorney and the department must be given notice at least 21 days before sentencing, disposition of the violation, or the hearing on the motion, and they can present evidence against your petition. Prosecutors often do.

The court weighs the age gap, whether the encounter was genuinely consensual, and whether removal would conflict with federal law. Even when a person qualifies, the decision is discretionary and left to the trial judge.

And there is no second try: if the court denies the motion, you cannot petition again under this section. That is why talking to a sex crime attorney before you file matters more than most people realize.

Contact our firm today to talk through your specific facts before you put your one shot on paper.

What If the Law Doesn’t Apply to You?

Plenty of cases don’t fit that narrow box, and the stakes climb fast. Under Florida Statute 794.011, sexual battery ranges from a second-degree felony at the low end up to a capital felony when an adult 18 or older commits sexual battery on a victim under 12.

An offender under 18 who commits sexual battery on a victim under 12 commits a life felony. Lewd or lascivious offenses under Florida Statute 800.04 follow a similar pattern, with penalties rising based on the ages involved and whether force was used.

None of this bends for good intentions. Under Florida Statute 800.04, the victim’s lack of chastity, the victim’s consent, and the perpetrator’s belief about the victim’s age are all barred as defenses. A fake ID, a lie about age, or an honest mistake does not hold up in front of a judge.

Talk to an Orlando Sex Crimes Attorney First

An attorney who has stood on both sides of the courtroom sees angles a first-time defense lawyer might miss. Robert Fisher served as a Seminole County Assistant State Attorney before building his defense practice, and he has been licensed in Florida since 1980. He knows how prosecutors in Orlando and across Central Florida build these cases from the inside, which shapes how he takes them apart from the outside.

Whether you’re facing a charge or already convicted and wondering about registry relief, get someone in your corner who knows the difference between these statutes before you file. Visit our Orlando sex crimes lawyer page to see how we approach these cases.

FAQs

Does the Romeo and Juliet law stop me from being charged?

No. It only applies after a conviction or adjudication, and it does not block an arrest, charge, or prosecution. If you’re worried about a charge right now, you need a defense strategy, not a registry petition.

Can I file again if my petition gets denied?

No, you get one shot. If the court denies the motion, you cannot petition again under this section for removal of the registration requirement. That is exactly why the first filing needs to be airtight.

Will getting off the registry also clear my conviction?

No, those are two separate things. Registry removal and expungement are different processes, and the underlying conviction typically stays on your record. Clearing the conviction takes a separate legal process.

What if my case happened years ago, before 2007?

The law took effect in 2007, but an older qualifying conviction can still be worth reviewing against the current criteria. Old case or not, it’s worth a conversation with an attorney about whether your facts fit.

Robert B. Fisher, P.A.: Your Criminal Defense Law Firm

You came here to figure out whether an age-gap situation could turn into sex offender registration, or whether there’s a way out of one already on your record. That’s not a question to answer alone with search results.

Every petition under this statute lives or dies on the specific facts, the exact age gap, and how the original case was charged, and Robert Fisher has spent over four decades in Seminole and Orange County courtrooms learning what judges want to see before they grant relief.

If this touches your life or your child’s, contact our firm today for a free consultation, and let’s figure out where you actually stand.