The client carried a Class 4 Felony Forgery conviction out of Maricopa County Superior Court from a 2000 case. Future First filed the Application to Seal under ARS § 13-911 and the court granted the application in 114 days, closing public access to the decades-old case file.
At a glance
| Original conviction | Forgery (ARS § 13-2002), Class 4 Felony |
| Application filed | Application to Seal, ARS § 13-911, 2024 |
| Court | Maricopa County Superior Court |
| Result | Sealing Record Granted. The entire case file sealed from public access. |
| Rights restored | N/A on this filing. Sealing closes public access to the record. |
| Time from application to grant | 114 days from application filing to granted |
The challenge
A Class 4 Felony Forgery conviction under ARS § 13-2002 sits at a serious felony tier in Arizona. The 2000 case had been on the record for over two decades. Older felony cases still show on background checks because Arizona does not auto-expire felony records. The client wanted the case file closed from public view after years of clean living.
ARS § 13-911 was the path. The statute closes public access to the file once the eligibility math and the statutory wait line up. The client had completed the sentence years before the application, satisfied the wait, and the path was open for an Application to Seal in Maricopa County Superior Court.
What we did
Future First filed the Application to Seal under ARS § 13-911 in Maricopa County Superior Court. The application covered the Class 4 Felony Forgery conviction. The package documented full sentence completion, the § 13-911 wait long-since satisfied from judge-ordered non-financial completion, and the statutory factors the court weighs under § 13-911.
Older felony fraud cases sometimes require sourcing the original case file. The firm pulled the file and built the application with full documentation. The court took 114 days to move the application through review. The application held up at every step and the court entered the order on the merits.
The judge signed the order. Sealing Record Granted on the Class 4 Felony Forgery conviction. The court file is closed from public access.
What our clients say
Read verified reviews from real Future First clients on our client reviews page or directly on Google.
If you have an older felony Forgery on your record
ARS § 13-911 has no upper time limit. A felony Forgery conviction from the early 2000s is just as eligible for sealing as a recent case, provided the sentence is fully complete and the statutory wait is met. The sealing wait for a Class 4 Felony Forgery is five years from judge-ordered non-financial completion of the sentence. With a decades-old case the wait is long past.
Sealing under § 13-911 closes public access to the file. Future employers running background checks against Maricopa County Superior Court records get no result on a sealed case. The arrest, the case file, and the conviction record drop off public view.
Set aside under § 13-905 is the related cleanup. The two often run in sequence, with set aside vacating the conviction and sealing closing the file. For a decades-old felony fraud case the combination is the strongest cleanup available under Arizona law.
Related resources
Call us
Want to clear your record in Arizona? Call Future First Criminal Law at 602-900-6240 or request a free consultation. We have handled hundreds of Arizona record removal applications across every statute path. The cleanup is permanent and the process moves faster when handled by a firm that knows the local court.
Anonymized in line with firm policy. Client name not used. Specific dates approximated to year only. Outcome described reflects this client’s actual results. Past outcomes do not guarantee future results. For more detailed information on Arizona record removal law, visit the Arizona State Legislature website.
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
Life’s better with a clean record