Arizona Court Records

Arizona Court Record Lookup

There are two types of municipal courts in Arizona: one that is mostly restricted to traffic issues, called the municipal court, and another, called justice court, that handles civil cases, such as Arizona child support, custody and divorce with monetary stakes under $10,000, some criminal cases, domestic violence, harassment, etc. Above Arizona courthouses of limited jurisdiction are superior courts, which handle probate, Arizona divorce filings, criminal trials, evictions, and naturalization issues. Arizona AZ court records can be view by conducting an Arizona court case lookup. The court of appeals uses panels of three judges to hear disputes about lower court decisions. The state supreme court determines constitutionality issues. You can obtain information about Arizona criminal records, civil and traffic cases, and more through AZ court case lookup.

Access to Arizona Court Records

Whether you’re looking for a divorce decree, a small claims decision, proof of your innocence, or evidence that you completed the terms of your probation, you will need records from a courthouse.  Just make sure you are performing Arizona court records search in a trustworthy source

Some court records are not available to the public or may be restricted due to confidentiality. Juvenile cases are always closed due to the age of the individuals involved. Judges may limit access to records of domestic abuse or redact names of informants or witnesses from records to protect their privacy.

AZ Probate Records

When a person dies, his property is divided and transferred under the supervision of the probate court. These AZ courts also handle guardianship, elder abuse, and certain types of fraud. Most property transfer records can be requested but some other probate matters may be confidential if they name victims of crime. In order to find records from the probate court conduct Arizona court record lookup.

Divorce Decrees

A divorce decree is often necessary for financial records, getting a subsequent marriage license, or for citizenship matters. The clerk of the superior court where the divorce was granted is responsible for keeping these records, they can be accessed online through searching Arizona court records online. 

Arizona Notable Court Decisions

In the realm of marijuana legalization, court decisions are somewhat temporary: although residents had voted to approve the legalization of medical marijuana, the state Supreme Court decided in the spring of 2016 that police may initiate searches for illegal substances based on a smell. The decision overturned an appellate court ruling that disallowed the basis for searching as it could emanate from a legal source. The case stemmed from police searching for the source of a cannabis smell based on olfactory evidence at a storage unit. The Supreme Court acknowledged that this ruling could be different after November when legalization of medical marijuana is enacted.

A disputed open-pit copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains near Tucson wound its way through the courts in recent years: environmentalists who oppose the mine first won, then lost. Alleging that the state Department of Environmental Quality used inaccurate calculations in permitting the operation, a grassroots environmental group opposed the mine on air quality issues. A superior court judge sided with the environmentalists, but later an appeals court panel reversed that decision and set the stage for the mile-wide, 3,000-foot-deep mine to move forward. The case could still be appealed to the state Supreme Court.