Which Phoenix Court Handles Your Record Sealing Petition?

You have an old Phoenix case and you want it sealed. You open the court websites and find three different courts in the same city, each with its own form and its own address. Nobody tells you which one is yours, and a filing in the wrong one costs you weeks.

We file sealing applications in Phoenix courts every week. AZ Record Removal is owned and powered by Future First Criminal Law, and matching the case to the right court is the first thing we do on every file.

Which Phoenix court handles your record sealing application?

The court that handled your case handles your sealing application. Phoenix has three kinds of criminal courts, and A.R.S. § 13-911 sends you back to the one that held your case, not the one closest to your house.

• Phoenix Municipal Court, the city court at 300 W. Washington St., hears misdemeanors and minor traffic cases cited by Phoenix police.
• Maricopa County Justice Courts hear misdemeanors cited by county and state agencies. Twenty-six precinct courts sit across the county, and nine of them carry Phoenix addresses.
• Maricopa County Superior Court hears felonies and sits downtown in the Central Court Building at 201 W. Jefferson St.

A conviction goes back to the convicting court. A dismissal goes back to the court where the charge was filed. An arrest with no charge goes to the court of your initial appearance, or to Superior Court if no appearance happened.

What does A.R.S. § 13-911 say about where to file?

Subsection C of A.R.S. § 13-911 gives four rules, and one of them decides your court.

Your situation	Where the application goes
Convicted	The court that convicted you
Charged, then dismissed, found not guilty, or conviction vacated	The court where the complaint or citation was filed
Arrested, no charge filed, but you had an initial appearance	The court that held the initial appearance
Arrested, no charge filed, no initial appearance	The superior court in the county of arrest

One carve-out sits inside the second rule. If the complaint started in a justice court and the prosecutor later filed an information in Superior Court, the application goes to Superior Court. That carve-out gets its own section below.

As of 2026, the sealing law works this way in every Arizona court. The rewrite under SB 1639 took effect September 13, 2024, and it left the filing rules in subsection C in place.

When does Phoenix Municipal Court handle your sealing application?

Phoenix Municipal Court handles your application when Phoenix police cited or booked you and the city prosecutor filed a misdemeanor. The Phoenix Municipal Court hears class 1 misdemeanors and minor traffic violations inside city limits. Typical cases include a misdemeanor DUI under A.R.S. § 28-1381, shoplifting, misdemeanor assault, disorderly conduct, and driving on a suspended license.

The court has its own sealing form and instruction sheet, and it will not take a form built for another court. Its instructions also use the word arraignment where the law says initial appearance, which confuses people who were booked and released without a charge. If Phoenix police arrested you, no charge followed, and you never stood in front of a judge, Phoenix Municipal Court is not your court. Superior Court is.

One more trap. A citation written by a Phoenix officer sometimes lands in a justice court instead. Read the citation. The court name is printed on it.

When does a Maricopa County justice court handle it?

A justice court handles your application when a county or state agency cited you, or when the county attorney filed a misdemeanor in a justice precinct. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, the Department of Public Safety, and university police send misdemeanors to justice courts.

Maricopa County runs 26 justice courts. Nine carry Phoenix addresses: Arcadia Biltmore, Desert Ridge, Dreamy Draw, El Centro, Encanto, McDowell Mountain, Moon Valley, South Mountain, and West McDowell. Precinct lines follow county election maps, not city borders, so a Phoenix address alone does not tell you which precinct held your case.

Your case went to the precinct where it was filed, and that is where the sealing application goes. The justice courts post a clear my record page with their own forms, plus a case search that confirms the precinct by your name.

When does Maricopa County Superior Court handle it?

Superior Court handles your application when the case was a felony, when the charge started in a justice court and moved up on an information, or when you were arrested and no charge or initial appearance ever happened. Felony convictions, felony dismissals, and felony acquittals in Phoenix all belong to Superior Court.

The criminal department sits downtown, in the Central Court Building at 201 W. Jefferson St. and the South Court Tower at 175 W. Madison St. The court posts a sealing page through its law library with its own instructions and form. A felony filing draws a Department of Public Safety report and a response from the county attorney, so the application needs to be complete before it goes in.

The waiting periods for a felony conviction still apply: 10 years for a class 2 or 3 felony, 5 years for a class 4, 5, or 6 felony, measured from the day you finished the sentence and paid every dollar.

Where do you file if your felony case started in a justice court?

In Superior Court, if the prosecutor filed an information after the justice court complaint. This is the carve-out in A.R.S. § 13-911(C), and it describes how most Phoenix felonies begin. The arrest leads to an initial appearance, the county attorney files a complaint in a justice court, and weeks later an indictment or an information moves the case to Superior Court.

Your sealing application follows the case to Superior Court. One application there covers the records in both courts, because the order seals every record of the arrest, the charge, and the sentence.

The exception runs the other way. If the county attorney dismissed the complaint while it still sat in the justice court, and no information was ever filed, the justice court kept the case and keeps the sealing application. Pull the justice court docket and read the last entry. A dismissal there means you file there.

Where do you file if you were arrested but never charged?

In the court that held your initial appearance, or in Maricopa County Superior Court if no initial appearance happened. Most people booked into the Fourth Avenue Jail see a judge within 24 hours. If the prosecutor then declined to file, we file the application in Superior Court, which is where every Phoenix no-charge arrest we have handled has gone.

There is no waiting period on an arrest that never became a charge. The same is true for a dismissal and a not guilty verdict. You file as soon as the case closes. Our guide to sealing an arrest that never became a charge covers what the application needs when there is no case to point to.

A no-charge arrest is also where memory misleads people. You remember the arrest and assume nothing was filed, when the city prosecutor filed a charge and dismissed it months later. That case belongs to Phoenix Municipal Court, not Superior Court, and the DPS record is what tells the difference.

How do you confirm the right court before you file?

Read the paperwork first, then check the record. Every citation names the court at the top. Every plea agreement, sentencing order, and dismissal order carries the court name in the caption.

If you kept nothing, three searches settle it.

• The Maricopa County Justice Courts case search lists every justice court case by name and shows the precinct.
• The Superior Court criminal case search lists every felony filed in the county.
• A Phoenix Municipal Court records request returns the city case history.

A certified DPS record lists every Arizona arrest with the agency and the disposition, which tells you whether a charge was ever filed. Our page on finding your Arizona criminal record walks through each lookup. We run these searches on every case before we file, and we tell you what the record shows before you pay.

What happens if you file in the wrong court?

The court dismisses the application, and you start over. Rule 36.1 of the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure requires the court to check within 10 days whether the application identifies the records it wants sealed. A filing in the wrong court fails that check and comes back dismissed.

A dismissal is not a denial. A.R.S. § 13-911(L) blocks a new filing for 3 years after a denial, and a dismissal for wrong court or missing information does not trigger that bar. You refile in the right court right away. What you lose is time: the 10-day review, the mail, and a fresh 60-day hold once the right court receives it.

The 3-year bar is why we never guess on the court. Our post on what happens after a sealing denial explains what the bar covers.

Do you file one application per court if you have cases in more than one?

Yes. Each court rules only on its own records, so a Phoenix Municipal Court misdemeanor and a Superior Court felony need two applications in two courts. Each one draws its own prosecutor response and its own ruling.

The judges do not coordinate. The waiting period for each conviction runs on its own clock too, so a misdemeanor that qualifies today gets filed today while the felony waits. Our guide to sealing more than one Arizona case covers how we sequence them.

Other relief rides in the same packet. A set aside under A.R.S. § 13-905 and a designation of an undesignated class 6 felony under A.R.S. § 13-604 both go to the court that entered the conviction, so the court that takes your sealing application takes those too. A.R.S. § 13-905(B) bars a clerk filing fee on a set aside application. Our sealing records service page explains what the sealing order does.

Does the court change how long sealing takes?

The 60-day hold applies in every court. A.R.S. § 13-911(D) bars a judge from granting or denying the application until 60 days after the court receives it, unless the prosecutor and every victim who asked for notice state no objection. The judge rules on paper unless someone requests a hearing.

What differs is the workload in front of that judge. Phoenix Municipal Court and the justice courts process a steady stream of misdemeanor applications and tend to rule soon after the hold ends. Superior Court felony applications wait on the county attorney’s response and the DPS report, and rulings there run longer. Our sealing timeline page tracks what we see court by court.

After a grant, the court holds the record for 60 days before the seal takes effect. Then the public court record drops out of the case search. A Google result, a news story, or a mugshot site does not come down with it, because sealing reaches the court file and the DPS record, not the internet.

Why should you choose AZ Record Removal?

Arizona record clearing is the only work we do. AZ Record Removal is owned and powered by Future First Criminal Law, and our founder, Zachary Divelbiss, sealed his own six convictions before the firm sealed anyone else’s.

• We confirm the court before we file. Every case gets a DPS record pull and a search of the city, justice, and Superior Court dockets, and we tell you what the record shows before you pay.
• We file the applications. You do not fill out a court form, serve the prosecutor, or stand at a filing counter.
• We track the court. We calendar the 60-day hold, read every prosecutor response, and request a hearing when one helps.
• One flat fee of $1,700 per case covers every type of relief the case qualifies for, with no court fees added. Full numbers sit on our pricing page.
• We have 250+ five-star Google reviews, and our case victories page lists sealed Phoenix cases from all three courts.

Phones are answered around the clock at 602-900-6240. Consultations are scheduled during business hours.

What should you do next?

Find out which court holds your case, then file once. Start with our free eligibility quiz to learn which filings your case qualifies for. Then call 602-900-6240 and we will pull the record, name the court, and tell you what we would file and when. No judge is required to grant a sealing application, and the right court is where a complete application starts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you file in the Phoenix court or the court where you live now?

The court where the case was handled. Moving to Tucson, Mesa, or out of state changes nothing. A Phoenix Municipal Court conviction goes back to Phoenix Municipal Court, and a Maricopa County Superior Court felony goes back to Superior Court downtown. We file by mail and e-filing, so you do not travel to the courthouse.

Which court takes a sealing application for a Phoenix DUI?

The court that handled the DUI case. A misdemeanor DUI cited by Phoenix police usually sits in Phoenix Municipal Court, a DUI cited by DPS on a Phoenix freeway usually sits in a justice court, and an aggravated DUI felony sits in Superior Court. The citation names the court, and the DPS record confirms it when the citation is long gone.

Does a sealing order from a city court reach the police record too?

Yes. A sealing order under A.R.S. § 13-911 reaches the court file, the prosecutor’s file, the arresting agency, and the DPS record, no matter which court signs it. The order does not remove news stories or mugshot sites, so a fresh DPS report is the proof it worked.

What if you do not know whether charges were ever filed?

Order a certified DPS record. It lists every Arizona arrest with the arresting agency and the disposition, so it shows whether a prosecutor filed a charge and in which court. We pull this record on every case before filing. If the entry shows no charge and no initial appearance, the application goes to Maricopa County Superior Court.