Fee changes are coming to many Arizona courts. Effective March 18, 2013 a series of fee increases are taking place for the AZ Superior Courts and Justice Courts. These increases affect both the filing of court cases and the access of court records. Filing fees will increase between $2.00 and $8.00, depending on the type of court and type of filing. All record search and certification fees increase by $1.00; the Superior Court from $26 to $27, and the Justice Court from $24 to $25.
The Arizona Code of Judicial Administration gives the Supreme Court the ability to increases fees without legislative guidance. The increase however cannot exceed the percent of change in the U.S. Dept. of Labor Consumer Price Index.
A copy of the Administrative order for the Superior Court fees is found at www.azcourts.gov/Portals/0/admcode/pdfcurrentcode/3-404_New_12-2012.pdf.
A copy of the Administrative Order for Justice Courts is found at www.azcourts.gov/Portals/0/admcode/pdfcurrentcode/4-303_New_12-2012.pdf
Search Tip
There is a particular idiosyncrasy in Arizona that one must be cognizant of when pulling public records. The text in the statute and administrative code calls for a fee if court personnel research when asked to locate a document (per year or source research). The word research is italicized and bolded because a number of Justice Court clerks interpret the meaning of this word different than the Superior Court clerks. The Superior Court clerks will not charge a fee if a file number is given; they do not consider this as research. However many of the Justice Court clerks do consider the retrieval of a file when the case number is given as research and will charge this fee. Hence the fee for many AZ Justice Courts to do a name search to find a file number then and to pull the physical file will increase from $48 to $50. Of course, if there are multiple cases, the fee grows higher.
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