--- name: az-maricopa description: > This skill should be used when drafting or filing civil documents in the Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County — the largest trial court in Arizona, sitting in Phoenix. Triggers include "Maricopa County Superior Court", "file in Maricopa County", "Phoenix superior court", "Maricopa Commercial Court", "Maricopa compulsory arbitration", "Maricopa local rules", "Central Court Building Phoenix", "AZTurboCourt Maricopa", "sued in Maricopa County", and "Maricopa County civil case number". Covers the downtown and regional court facilities, general civil jurisdiction, the Local Rules of Practice for the Superior Court in Maricopa County, the compulsory-arbitration jurisdictional limit set by local rule, the Commercial Court specialty calendar, complex-case assignment, AZTurboCourt e-filing, and Maricopa case-type / case-number conventions. Layer on top of `az-statewide-format`. version: 0.1.0 --- # Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County (Phoenix) > **NOT LEGAL ADVICE.** These notes describe the venue's > procedural mechanics as a drafting aid, not legal advice. Local > rules, administrative orders, and judge-specific practices > change; verify with the clerk and the current Maricopa County > local rules before relying on anything here. Use this skill in addition to `az-statewide-format` when the matter is a **civil** case in the **Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County**, the state's largest court by caseload, serving Phoenix and the balance of Maricopa County. ## Facilities Maricopa County Superior Court is multi-campus. The downtown Phoenix complex and several regional centers host civil operations: - **Central Court Building (CCB)** and the **East Court Building (ECB)** — the downtown Phoenix civil complex; the Clerk of the Superior Court's central filing counter and the bulk of civil judicial officers sit here. - **Old Courthouse** — the historic downtown building used for certain calendars and ceremonial proceedings. - **Northeast Regional Court Center** (northeast Phoenix area) and **Southeast Regional Court Center** (Mesa / east-valley area) — regional facilities that hear civil and family matters. - **Northwest Regional Court Center** — Surprise (west-valley area). Confirm the current building, civil-filing counter, and the calendar assigned to your case with the Clerk of the Superior Court before any in-person filing or appearance; facility assignments and hours change. ## General civil jurisdiction The Superior Court is Arizona's court of **general jurisdiction** and hears civil actions without a statutory amount-in-controversy ceiling, plus equitable claims and other matters within superior court jurisdiction. Lower-value money claims and many landlord-tenant and small-claims matters belong in the **Justice Courts** — see `az-justice-courts`. Confirm the jurisdictional and venue fit before filing; a misfiled case can be transferred or dismissed. ## Local rules Practice in this court is governed by the statewide **Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure** as supplemented by the **Local Rules of Practice for the Superior Court in Maricopa County** and the court's standing **administrative orders**. The local rules address civil case management, the compulsory-arbitration program, complex-case designation, and motion and calendar practice. Do not hard-code rule numbers or dollar thresholds from memory — the local-rule provisions cited below are pointers; **verify the controlling rule number, current threshold, and any amendment against the corpus** (`az-law-references`) and the court's published local rules before relying on them. ## Compulsory arbitration Maricopa County operates a **compulsory (court-annexed) arbitration** program under its local rules and the statewide arbitration provisions of the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure. A civil money case at or below the **local jurisdictional limit** (in which no party seeks affirmative relief other than a money judgment) is routed to a court-appointed arbitrator rather than tried to the assigned judge in the first instance. - The complaint is generally accompanied by the **Certificate on Compulsory Arbitration** required by Ariz. R. Civ. P. 72(e), stating whether the controversy is at or below the arbitration limit. A case seeking an award above the limit is certified **not** subject to arbitration. - A party dissatisfied with the arbitrator's award may **appeal for a trial de novo** before the assigned judge within the time set by rule. - The **arbitration jurisdictional dollar limit, the certificate requirement, and the appeal deadline are set by the local rule and the Rules of Civil Procedure — confirm the current figures against `az-law-references`** rather than treating any number here as fixed. (Maricopa's limit has historically been at the higher end among Arizona counties; verify the controlling amount.) ## Commercial Court Maricopa County operates a **Commercial Court** — a specialty civil calendar created as an Arizona Supreme Court pilot in 2015 and made a **permanent feature of the Civil Department effective January 1, 2019** — to manage commercial and business disputes expeditiously before a small group of designated judges. - Eligibility turns on the **nature of the dispute** (commercial and business controversies — among business entities and their owners, governance, transactions, and related categories), as defined by the controlling administrative order; confirm the current eligibility definition and any opt-in / assignment mechanics in that order. - Commercial Court cases filed in the **Northeast and Southeast** regional facilities are assigned to one of the designated Commercial Court judges (who sit downtown). Confirm the current assignment procedure with the clerk. - For substantive commercial-dispute drafting, see `az-commercial-disputes`. Distinct from Commercial Court, the local rules also allow a case to be designated **complex** (continuous judicial management) on a party's request granted by the judge or on the judge's own motion, with reassignment to a Complex Case judge. Confirm the current complex-designation rule and procedure in the local rules. ## E-filing — AZTurboCourt / eFileAZ Electronic filing in Maricopa County civil cases runs through the statewide **AZTurboCourt / eFileAZ** system. E-filing is the default channel for represented parties and most civil document types; confirm whether your document type and party status require e-filing or permit paper or counter filing, and confirm the correct document-type / case-category selection at upload. See `az-file-packet`. ## Case-type and case-number conventions A Maricopa County civil case number embeds a **case-type designator** that signals the case category. Civil actions generally carry the **"CV"** prefix (e.g., `CV2026-#######`). Family, probate, and other departments use different prefixes. Confirm the controlling designator and any local sub-coding for your specific claim with the Clerk of the Superior Court, and select the matching case category at e-filing intake. ## Composition - For statewide format and the Arizona caption: `az-statewide-format` - For the first responsive pleading: `az-first-30-days` - For drafting motions / notices / orders / declarations: `az-draft-motion`, `az-draft-note`, `az-draft-order`, `az-draft-declaration` - For computing deadlines: `az-deadlines` - For scheduling a hearing: `az-schedule-hearing`, `az-hearings` - For assembling and e-filing a packet: `az-file-packet` - For discovery: `az-discovery` - For commercial / business substance: `az-commercial-disputes` - For lower-value money, eviction, and small-claims matters: `az-justice-courts` - For other counties: `az-pima`, `az-superior-courts` - For pro se conventions: `az-pro-se` ## References - `az-law-references` — Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure, evidence, citation, fees, and local-rules corpus (the canonical home for the compulsory-arbitration limit and the Maricopa local-rule text) - Local Rules of Practice for the Superior Court in Maricopa County and the court's administrative orders (superiorcourt.maricopa.gov) - Arizona Judicial Branch (azcourts.gov) for the statewide AZTurboCourt / eFileAZ system and the statewide arbitration rule