The client carried a Class 1 misdemeanor assault conviction out of Tempe Municipal Court for more than two decades. Future First filed an Application to Seal Criminal Case Records under ARS § 13-911 alongside the set-aside packet. The Tempe Sealing Records Assault application was granted in 64 days.
At a glance
| Original conviction | Assault (ARS § 13-1203(A)(1)), Class 1 Misdemeanor, 2000 |
| Application filed | Application to Seal Criminal Case Records under ARS § 13-911, 2025 |
| Court | Tempe Municipal Court |
| Result | Sealing Record Granted |
| Rights restored | Court file, prosecutor file, and DPS records sealed |
| Time from application to grant | 64 days from application filing to granted |
The challenge
A set aside cleans the judgment. It does not pull the case off the public docket and it does not remove the arrest from the Department of Public Safety record. For this client, the assault conviction still surfaced in DPS criminal-history pulls and in court-database searches more than two decades after the case closed. Employers ran the report and saw the arrest, even after the conviction was set aside.
The Tempe Sealing Records Assault application was the second half of the strategy. Without sealing under ARS § 13-911, the arrest stayed visible, the charging documents stayed visible, and the DPS cycle stayed visible. The client needed the whole record off the public shelf, not just the judgment of guilt cleared.
What we did
Future First filed the Application to Seal Criminal Case Records under ARS § 13-911 in Tempe Municipal Court on the same day as the set-aside application. The packet hit every statutory checkbox: the timeframes under ARS § 13-911 had passed, the client had completed all terms of the sentence including monetary obligations, and the firm built the public-safety argument from the client’s quarter-century of clean conduct since the offense.
The application identified the arrest records held by Tempe Police Department, the charging documents held by the Tempe City Prosecutor’s Office, and all court case records under case number 00-4441033. Future First attached a DPS criminal-history screenshot to show exactly what the public was seeing, and a support letter that walked the court through the client’s rehabilitation and the practical consequences of leaving the record in place.
The court granted the Application to Seal Criminal Case Records. The order directed the Clerk of the Court to seal all case records, transmit the order to the Department of Public Safety, and notify the prosecutor. The client’s public arrest, conviction, and sentence records for the 2000 case are now sealed under ARS § 13-911.
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If you have an old conviction in Arizona
Arizona’s sealing statute, ARS § 13-911, took effect in 2023 and gave Arizona residents a tool the state had never offered before. The statute lets you seal arrest records, court records, and prosecutor records on most eligible offenses after a waiting period that runs from the day you finished the judge-ordered non-financial terms of your sentence. For most Class 1 misdemeanors, that wait is three years. For Class 3 misdemeanors, two years. For DUI cases, the wait runs from counseling completion. Felony waits run longer.
Sealing is different from a set aside. A set aside cleans the judgment of guilt. Sealing removes the case file from public access entirely. For most clients, both applications belong in the same packet. The set aside fixes the judgment. The sealing closes the file.
Older convictions are usually easier to seal because the statutory wait has clearly passed and the public-safety analysis runs in your favor. For a 25-year-old misdemeanor with a clean record since, the sealing path is the cleanest fix Arizona offers.
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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.
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