A Fort Lauderdale resident reaches out because they keep getting calls meant for an attorney with the same name. Someone in Coral Springs discovers their credit report shows a professional license they never applied for. A Pembroke Pines homeowner finds out a lien was filed against the wrong property because the clerk’s office confused two people with nearly identical names.
These aren’t hypothetical problems. Florida’s public records system is massive and mostly automated, and when two people share a name — even a less common one — the system doesn’t always get it right.
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How Name Confusion Creates Real Legal Problems
Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation maintains over 1.5 million active licenses. The Florida Bar lists roughly 112,000 attorneys. County clerks across the state process millions of documents every year — deeds, liens, judgments, lis pendens notices. Most of this gets indexed by name and date of birth, and sometimes just by name.
Say your name is John Aks and you live in Broward County. Another John Aks practices law in Miami-Dade. A title search pulls up both of you. A judgment creditor looking for the attorney files a lien against your Plantation home instead. You don’t find out until you try to refinance six months later.
Florida Statute 55.10 governs how judgment liens attach to real property. The lien attaches when the judgment is recorded in the county where the debtor owns property. But the statute doesn’t require the creditor to verify the debtor’s address or run a detailed background check before filing. If the name matches, the lien gets recorded.
Clearing it requires a motion to release the lien, an affidavit proving you’re not the judgment debtor, and often a separate quiet title action if the creditor doesn’t cooperate. The process takes weeks, sometimes months. During that time, your property has a cloud on title and you can’t close any transaction that requires clear title.
What Happens When Professional Licenses Get Mixed Up
Florida’s MyFloridaLicense system is searchable by name. If you share a name with a licensed professional — real estate broker, contractor, insurance adjuster, or anyone regulated by DBPR — a license verification may return your name linked to credentials you don’t hold.
This becomes a problem in two directions:
- You might receive business inquiries or legal complaints meant for the other person.
- If the licensed professional has disciplinary history, that record shows up when someone searches your shared name.
DBPR’s public database doesn’t always distinguish clearly between individuals with the same name unless you drill down into license numbers and dates of birth. Employers, clients, and background-check companies often don’t dig that deep. They see the name, see the license or discipline, and make assumptions.
There is no automatic fix for this. You can’t force DBPR to annotate their database with a disclaimer that says, “This isn’t me.” What you can do is be proactive:
- If you’re applying for a job, buying a house, or entering any situation where someone might run your name through a professional license search, get ahead of it.
- Pull your own search results and be ready to show that the license number, issue date, and other details don’t match your information.
The Florida Bar and Attorney Confusion
The Florida Bar’s “Find a Lawyer” tool is public. Anyone can search by name. If you share a name with an attorney, your name will appear in those searches even though you’re not a member of the Bar.
This creates awkward situations. Potential clients call you thinking you’re the lawyer. Opposing counsel in a case sends you discovery requests. A legal marketing company adds your phone number to a list and starts pitching services you don’t need.
More seriously, if the attorney with your name gets publicly disciplined — suspension, disbarment, or a reprimand published in the Bar News — that information is tied to the name you share. The Bar’s discipline database is indexed by name. Someone Googling your name will find the disciplinary case.
Florida Bar Rule 3-7.1 requires the Bar to publish notices of discipline. That’s not optional. The cases are public record and they stay public indefinitely. If your name is John Aks and an attorney named John Aks gets disbarred, anyone searching “John Aks Florida Bar” will find that case.
You cannot sue the Bar for defamation because publishing truthful public records is not defamation. You cannot demand they remove the attorney’s name from their database because they are required by law to maintain it. What you can do is build a strong, separate online presence — LinkedIn, professional bios, or other profiles that clearly distinguish you from the attorney — so that when people search your name, they find you, not just the other person’s disciplinary history.
Court Records and the Wrong Defendant
Florida’s court system is online. The Broward County Clerk’s case search, Miami-Dade’s portal, and statewide case dockets are all searchable by party name. If someone with your name gets sued, arrested, or files for bankruptcy, that case shows up when someone searches your name.
Employers run background checks. Landlords search court records before approving lease applications. Lenders pull public records before closing a mortgage. If your name is tied to someone else’s lawsuit or criminal case, you might get denied for something you didn’t do.
Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.200 governs service of process. A plaintiff must serve the actual defendant, not just someone with the same name. But the initial complaint is filed before service happens. Once it’s filed, it’s public. The clerk’s office indexes it by name. If the plaintiff sued “John Aks” and you’re also John Aks, your name is now in the system linked to that case.
Clearing this requires more than ignoring it. If a case is wrongly attributed to you and it’s affecting your credit, employment, or ability to rent or buy property, you may need to file a motion to correct the record or, in extreme cases, a declaratory judgment action to formally establish that you are not the party named in the case.
Background-check companies are supposed to use multiple identifiers — date of birth, Social Security number, address history — to avoid false matches. Florida Statute 501.0055 requires consumer reporting agencies to follow reasonable procedures to ensure maximum possible accuracy. But “reasonable” is a low bar. If the name and county match, many reports will flag the case as potentially yours and leave it to the requester to investigate further.
Most requesters don’t investigate further. They see the name, see the case type, and move on to the next applicant.
No Automatic Right to Anonymity in Florida Public Records
Florida’s public records law, Chapter 119, is one of the broadest in the country. Court filings, property records, professional licenses, arrest records, and civil judgments — almost everything is public unless a specific statute or court order seals it.
You can’t ask the clerk’s office to remove your name from public records just because you share it with someone else. You can’t ask DBPR to hide search results. You can’t demand that Google stop indexing court cases that mention your name.
Florida Statute 119.071 lists specific exemptions — social security numbers, bank account numbers, certain health records, and addresses of domestic violence victims. “I share a name with someone who got sued” is not on that list.
What you can do is monitor:
- Set up Google Alerts for your name.
- Check the Broward County Clerk’s case search every few months.
- Pull your own background report once a year through a service like Checkr or GoodHire so you see what employers see.
If something wrong shows up, you can dispute it under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, but only if it’s actually incorrect. If the case exists and involves someone with your exact name, the report isn’t wrong — it’s just incomplete.
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When to Hire an Attorney
If a lien, judgment, or court case is wrongly tied to your name and it’s blocking a real estate closing, a job offer, or a loan approval, you need a lawyer. Trying to fix it yourself by calling the clerk’s office or writing letters to the creditor rarely works. These issues require formal legal filings — motions, affidavits, and sometimes a separate lawsuit.
The cost of clearing a wrongly filed lien or judgment in Florida typically runs between $1,500 and $5,000 depending on whether the other side cooperates. If you have to file a quiet title action or a declaratory judgment case, add another $3,000 to $7,000. That’s not small money, but neither is losing a home purchase because the title company won’t insure a property with a cloud they can’t clear in time for closing.
If the problem is less acute — you’re just annoyed that people keep confusing you with someone else — the legal remedy is probably not worth it. But if it’s costing you money, opportunities, or putting your property at risk, don’t wait. The longer a lien sits on your property or a judgment stays on your credit report, the harder it is to unwind.
Reach out to an attorney who handles title disputes or civil litigation in the county where the problem occurred. Bring every document you have — the lien, the judgment, the court case number, and your identification showing you’re not the person named in the filing. Most attorneys will tell you in a consultation whether the case is worth pursuing or whether you’re better off documenting the error and moving forward.
