The filings behind every Florida company, from Sunbiz to the courts

Every corporation, limited liability company and limited partnership formed in Florida, and every out-of-state company registered to do business here, has a file with the Florida Department of State’s Division of Corporations. The division publishes those files on Sunbiz, its public website, where anyone can search them without an account.¹

What the registry shows

A company’s record begins with the document that created it: articles of incorporation for a corporation, articles of organization for a limited liability company. The record shows the company’s principal and mailing addresses, its registered agent, the person or firm designated to accept legal papers on its behalf, and the officers, directors or managers named in its filings.

Companies must file an annual report to stay active. A company that does not can be administratively dissolved, and the record shows when that happened and whether the company was later reinstated. Each filing is kept as an image that can be opened and read, so the record shows not only a company’s current details but how they changed over time.¹

Sunbiz also holds fictitious name registrations, the filings that tie a trade name to the person or company that uses it.

Where the courts come in

The registry records what a company says about itself. Lawsuits and judgments come from the courts: state cases are filed with the clerk of court in each county, and federal cases in the federal district courts, whose dockets are public. The Business desk reads the registry and the dockets together and cites each record it uses.