Maricopa County, AZ Courts and Public Records

The Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County, based in Phoenix, is the general jurisdiction trial court for the state's most populous county. It hears felonies, larger civil cases, family law, probate, mental health and juvenile matters, while misdemeanors, traffic, small claims and evictions go to the county's Justice Courts and city courts.

Have the person's full name, the case number if you know it, and approximate dates ready. Superior Court, Justice Court and city court cases are kept in separate systems.

The Superior Court in Maricopa County received 124,933 new cases in fiscal year 2025 and terminated 120,599, while the county's 26 Justice Courts received another 356,167. Superior Court filings rose 5.0% from FY 2024, led by civil cases, and the county accounted for 59.6% of all Superior Court filings in Arizona.

Civil filings drove the Superior Court increase, adding 7,836 cases, with debt collection (seller plaintiff) filings alone rising from 15,940 to 21,747, while felony filings fell by 3,095, including 2,611 fewer felony drug possession cases.

Maricopa County Superior Court filings have risen for three straight fiscal years and now sit well above the FY 2021 level, and Justice Court filings have grown even faster. Dispositions trailed filings in every Superior Court year shown.

Superior Court

Justice Courts

Superior Court filings rose 12.7% between FY 2021 and FY 2025, from 110,880 to 124,933, and Justice Court filings rose 44.1%, from 247,154 to 356,167. For the Superior Court, the largest annual increase in cases came in FY 2025 (5,894 more than FY 2024) and the largest decrease was -2.8% in FY 2021, 3,219 cases below FY 2020's 114,099. The latest Superior Court rise came from civil filings, up 7,836, while criminal filings fell by 3,095; in the Justice Courts, civil traffic (up 12,914) and other civil suits (up 11,280) led the FY 2025 increase.

Civil cases make up the largest share of Maricopa County Superior Court filings at 34.1% of the 124,933 filed in FY 2025, followed by family law (domestic relations) at 23.5% and criminal cases at 19.4%, while civil cases also lead the Justice Courts with 187,559 of 356,167 filings (52.7%).

Superior Court

Among main Superior Court categories, civil grew fastest at +22.6%, driven by debt collection filings (+36.4%), while criminal fell fastest at -11.3%. Sub-rows are parts of the main category above them and are not added to the total twice.

Justice Courts

Among Justice Court categories with more than 1,000 filings, other criminal traffic grew fastest at +21.7% and orders of protection fell fastest at -11.2%.

Maricopa County accounted for 59.6% of the 209,779 Superior Court cases filed in Arizona in FY 2025 and 46.2% of the 771,028 Justice Court cases, while holding about 61.8% of the state's 2020 Census population. Its Superior Court filings grew slightly slower than the state's, and its Justice Court filings grew faster.

Maricopa County's Superior Court has a larger civil share and a smaller criminal and family law share than the state overall, and it files slightly fewer cases per resident. Its Justice Courts carry a much larger civil share, including evictions, where the county accounts for 82.7% of all eviction filings in Arizona's justice courts.

These figures combine offenses reported to the FBI by the 16 Maricopa County police departments that submitted a full 12 months of data in both years, including the Phoenix, Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, Scottsdale and Tempe departments, serving about 4.27 million residents. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (seven months reported in 2025), Wickenburg Police (11 months in 2025), campus police departments, and the Queen Creek and Apache Junction departments that CDE also assigns to Pinal County are excluded in both years, so the totals are not a full countywide count. Reported offenses in the seven categories below fell 10.0%, from 101,073 in 2024 to 90,923 in 2025.

The covered agencies' 2025 violent crime rate of about 438.0 per 100K is about 14% above the statewide rate of about 385.0, and their property crime rate of about 1,692.2 per 100K is about 10% above the statewide rate of about 1,534.0.

Maricopa County lists 21 Superior Court locations in Phoenix, Mesa, Surprise and Avondale, plus 26 Justice Court precincts that share seven buildings; probation-only offices are not shown. Check your notice, ticket or case paperwork for the exact court and building before you go, and note that Canyon Trails Justice Court is listed as opening in January 2027.

Maricopa County cases are split between the Superior Court, the 26 Justice Court precincts and the city and town courts, and your citation or court notice names the court that has your case. Federal cases are filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.

Yes, most Maricopa County court records are public, under Rule 123 of the Arizona Rules of Supreme Court, which opens case records to the public except those closed by law or court order.

Public records. Most adult case files in the Superior Court and Justice Courts are open, including dockets, minute entries and filed documents in criminal, civil, family, probate and traffic cases. Public records of the Clerk of the Superior Court can be inspected free of charge at the Clerk's four public locations.

Restricted or confidential records. Records that are sealed, confidential, juvenile or mental health cannot be viewed through public access computers or ECR Online. Closed, sealed or confidential records may not be subject to review or reproduction, and the Justice Courts make legally required redactions before releasing documents.

Online access. The Superior Court docket shows civil, criminal, family and probate case information but not documents. Parties and attorneys can use ECR Online to see documents in their own cases, the Clerk's minute entries portal covers civil, limited criminal and tax cases, and eAccess offers unrestricted documents for a fee. Justice Court cases are searched at Justice Courts case search, and city court cases are kept by each city court.

In-person access. Visit the Clerk of the Superior Court, 601 W. Jackson Street, Phoenix, or the Northwest, Southeast or Northeast regional court centers, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (602) 372-5375 to confirm what is available for your case.

Fees. The Clerk lists copies at $0.50 per page and a $35.00 charge to certify a document, and research fees may apply to larger requests. Personal checks are not accepted for in-person payments, and Justice Court copy costs are set by state law and handled by the court that heard the case.

Use the official Maricopa County portals to search by case type, and ask the Clerk or the court for documents that are not online.

1. Identify the case type, such as criminal, traffic, civil, small claims, family law, probate or juvenile, and whether it was heard by the Superior Court, a Justice Court or a city court.
2. Open the Superior Court docket for Superior Court cases or Justice Courts case search for Justice Court cases.
3. Search by party name or case number; the Justice Courts search asks for last name, first name and date of birth.
4. Review the docket for case status, parties and scheduled events, and note the case number from the results.
5. Request documents that are not online from the Clerk of the Superior Court or from the specific Justice Court that heard the case.

Justice Court civil traffic citations can be paid online, by phone, by mail or in person, and tickets written by city police are paid to the city court named on the citation.

1. Online: Pay a civil traffic citation in full at the Justice Courts payment page using the Justice Court case number or complaint number on your citation. The portal accepts credit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, new citations can take a day or two to appear, and criminal traffic citations cannot be paid online because they require court interaction first.
2. Payment plan: Download the payment plan application from the payment page and contact your court. Plans carry no interest and a one-time $20.00 Time Payment Fee set by state statute, and missed payments can lead to license suspension, a warrant or collection fees.
3. Phone, mail or in person: Civil traffic penalties may be paid at the court window, by phone, or by mail, using the court named on your citation (see the Justice Court locations page). Courts accept personal checks, money orders, cash, major credit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, with no more than $5 per day in coins, and returned checks carry a $25 fee.
4. Collections and off-site payment: Cases sent to collections are paid through AZCourtPay rather than the Justice Courts portal, and fine payments can also be made at PayNearMe locations.
5. Superior Court criminal fines and fees: These are paid through the Clerk of the Superior Court using the Clerk's payment page, which accepts online credit card, debit card or eCheck payments, and in-person, mail or wire payments. They are separate from traffic citations.

Many civil citations can be satisfied by attending Defensive Driving School instead of paying, and parking tickets are handled by the city or agency that issued them, not by the Superior Court or Justice Courts.