Maricopa runs the largest court system in Arizona. Superior Court (felonies, family, civil) uses its OWN eCourt search separate from the statewide portal — this is the most common DIY-search miss. Justice Courts (misdemeanors, small claims, civil traffic) and Municipal Courts (Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale, etc.) each have their own search interfaces.
Court-clerk note Arizona
¶ 01Maricopa County Superior Court is NOT in the statewide Public Access portal. You must search it separately at superiorcourt.maricopa.gov — many DIY searches miss this.
¶ 02Arizona's public records law (A.R.S. § 39-121) is generous: police reports, body-cam footage, 911 audio are all typically releasable to the public.
¶ 03The DPS criminal history record requires a fingerprint, so it's not a vetting tool — it's for consented background checks. Stick to court records.
¶ 04Yavapai, Coconino, and Maricopa all have separate Justice Court systems for low-level misdemeanors. Check both Superior and Justice records when running a serious vetting.
¶ 05Marriage and divorce records are filed at the county Superior Court level, not at a state registry. Use the appropriate county's docket search.
Guided record check
Run this in order.
Start with the systems most likely to change your read of a person. Then cross-check custody, registries, and paper-trail sources before you go wider.
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01 · The docket layer
Start with courts
3 sources
Run county and statewide court portals first. Civil, criminal, family, and lower-court systems are often separate, so this is where most missed records happen.
Statewide: Superior, Justice, Municipal courts (except Maricopa Superior). Domain migrated from supremecourt.az.gov to azcourts.gov — same portal at new URL. Updated 2026-05-03.
The most important single link in Arizona. Covers ~200 courts statewide. Search by name; results show case type, filing date, and disposition. Click into a case to see the full docket. Will NOT show Maricopa Superior cases — search those separately.
Eviction history is one of the most useful signals for vetting a partner or roommate — this is where to find it in Maricopa. Covers all 26 justice court precincts across Phoenix metro including Scottsdale, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Surprise, and Glendale.
Maricopa County Superior Court — felonies, family, civil, probate. Not in statewide portal. Separate searches for civil, criminal, and probate available.
Maricopa is the largest county in AZ — skip this and you miss every Phoenix-area Superior Court case. BRB confirms separate civil, criminal, and probate search interfaces. Family Court dockets also searchable separately.
02 · Current risk signals
Check custody and registries
3 sources
Use jail, corrections, and registry systems to catch records that do not show up in a normal court search.
Current jail roster: booking date, charges, custody status. Phoenix metro arrests. URL updated 2026-05-03 — /Home/Inmate path is a 404; confirmed at /InmateInfo.
AZ Dept of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry (ADCRR) inmate search. State prison inmates: current and released since 1985. URL updated 2026-05-03 — path moved to /inmate-data-search. Also accessible at inmatedatasearch.azcorrections.gov.
Search by ADC number, last name, or first name. Returns inmate location, sentence info, projected release date, and offense codes. Does NOT include county jail inmates — for those check the relevant county sheriff site.
Run by AZ DPS. The List with Photos view (separate page) is more visual but slower. Cross-check against the federal NSOPW for anyone who has lived out of state.
03 · Context and corroboration
Pull the paper trail
4 sources
Recorder, assessor, prosecutor, records-request, and licensing sources help verify addresses, liens, ownership, agency records, and local context.
Marriage license search is particularly useful — AZ files marriages at the county recorder, not a state registry. Records back to 1871 make this useful for deep family and property history. Main office at 301 W Jefferson St, Phoenix; branch at 222 E Javelina, Mesa (602-506-1511).
Search by owner name to find every parcel a person owns in Maricopa County. Useful for identifying alternate addresses, business properties, or undisclosed real-estate holdings.
See the Email Scripts page for exact wording. Most AZ agencies respond within 7–21 days. Phoenix PD, Mesa PD, Tucson PD, Maricopa Sheriff, and Pima Sheriff all have online records portals; smaller jurisdictions may require a written request via email.
Critical for identifying which businesses someone owns or operates. Search by individual name to find every entity where they appear as officer, agent, or member.
04 · Outside the county
Run the federal backstop
3 sources
Federal court and incarceration systems sit outside local portals. Run them before you decide the search is clean.
Federal District, Appeals, and Bankruptcy courts. Over 1 billion documents filed. $0.10/page (capped at $3.00/document); free if quarterly charges under $30. Account required for search. Confirmed live 2026-05-03.
PACER catches federal cases the state DOC and state courts will not. Account required, small per-search fees. Worth using for white-collar, federal drug, immigration, and bankruptcy.
All federal prison inmates, current and historical from 1982. Search by name (with race/sex/age filters) or inmate number. Note: search backend showed intermittent error during 2026-05-03 verification — likely temporary. If main tool is down, try https://www.bop.gov/mobile/find_inmate/byname.jsp as fallback.
All 50 states aggregated, plus DC, US territories, and tribal nations. Search by name or location. DOJ-operated. Named after Dru Sjodin. Also links to abuse reporting resources. Confirmed live 2026-05-03.
Cross-state coverage in one search. Run after the state-level registry to catch out-of-state moves.
Statute · Arizona public records law
Arizona's public records law (A.R.S. § 39-121) is one of the most generous in the country. Most law enforcement records, body-cam footage, 911 audio, and incident reports are releasable on request without a stated reason. The state also runs a unified court access portal that covers Superior, Justice, and Municipal courts statewide — except for Maricopa County Superior, which must be searched separately.
Typical response · 7 to 21 days for most records-request agencies; instant for online court and registry lookups