Arizona Expungement, Set Aside & Court Record Removal

How Arizona Court Cases Become Public Online

The Arizona Judicial Branch runs a statewide Public Access Case Lookup that lets anyone search criminal and civil filings by name, free of charge. Maricopa County layers its own eCourt and eAccess systems on top, and most other counties publish dockets through local clerk sites. Because these portals are open by default, commercial aggregators scrape them constantly: UniCourt, Justia, Trellis, and dozens of background-check and "people search" sites mirror Arizona dockets within days of filing. One courthouse entry quickly becomes ten search results tied to your name - and those copies live on servers the Arizona courts do not control.

What a Visible Arizona Record Costs You

Before weighing remedies, it helps to be clear about the stakes. Arizona employers routinely run a candidate's name through Google before the interview, and what surfaces is rarely the court's measured docket - it is an aggregator page that strips context, omits dismissals, and sometimes misstates the outcome entirely. Landlords in Phoenix and Tucson screen the same way. Professionals face an extra layer: many Arizona occupations require a fingerprint clearance card or board licensure, and while those reviews use official channels, a messy search presence still colors reference calls and client due diligence. Even dating and neighborhood apps now surface court data. Two features make the damage durable. First, aggregator pages are built for SEO - a UniCourt or Justia listing about an otherwise private person often ranks above their own profiles precisely because little else competes for their name. Second, the pages persist after the underlying case is resolved, so a 2016 charge that ended in dismissal can read, in 2026, like an open accusation. That gap between legal reality and search-result reality is exactly what the combination of an A.R.S. 13-911 sealing and systematic web removal is designed to close: the order fixes the official record, and the takedown work fixes what people actually see.

Set-Aside vs. Sealing: What Arizona Law Actually Allows

Arizona historically offered only a set-aside under A.R.S. 13-905. A set-aside vacates the judgment of guilt and dismisses the case, but the record stays publicly visible with a notation that it was set aside - helpful for employment conversations, weak for online privacy.

That changed when A.R.S. 13-911 took effect in January 2023. Sealing under 13-911 lets eligible people petition to seal records of arrests, charges, and many convictions after a waiting period that generally runs from two to ten years depending on the offense class. Certain categories, such as dangerous and serious offenses, are generally excluded, and prosecutors can object. Eligibility rules carry exceptions and continue to evolve, so confirm your current eligibility with a licensed Arizona attorney before filing.

Filing a Set-Aside or Sealing Petition in Arizona

• 1
  Pull your full case history. Order your record from the Arizona Department of Public Safety and list every case number, court, and disposition.
• 2
  Confirm the right remedy and your waiting period. A set-aside under 13-905 and sealing under 13-911 have different requirements; an Arizona attorney can verify which applies.
• 3
  File the petition in the court that handled the case, using the Judicial Branch's standard forms, and serve the prosecutor's office.
• 4
  Respond to any objection and attend a hearing if the judge sets one. If granted, the clerk and DPS update the official record.
• 5
  Order certified copies of the signed order - you will need them for every website and database that still displays the case.

Why a Granted Arizona Order Doesn't Clean Up Google

A sealing order binds Arizona courts and state agencies. It does not bind UniCourt, Justia, Trellis, mugshot sites, or data brokers that copied the docket before it was sealed. Each republisher must be contacted individually, shown the order, and asked to delete or suppress its copy - and each has its own process and timeline. The same stale data feeds AI tools: ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google's AI Overviews summarize whatever indexed databases still say about you, so cleaning up the sources also cleans up the answers. Start with our platform-specific walkthroughs for UniCourt, Justia, and Trellis.

When an Arizona Record Falls Outside Sealing

Plenty of Arizona cases fall outside 13-911 - excluded offense types, unfinished waiting periods, or civil matters that sealing statutes never touch. You still have options. Aggregators and people-search sites often honor direct removal or opt-out requests even without a court order, especially for dismissed or dated matters. Once a source page is gone, Google's outdated-content process can clear the leftover search result. Where a page stays up - a news article, for example - removal needs deeper analysis and may still be possible through publisher outreach, with suppression (building accurate, positive content that outranks it) as a complement. No one can force every publisher to delete a lawful page, and anyone promising otherwise is overselling.