--- name: az-pima description: > This skill should be used when drafting or filing documents in the Pima County Superior Court in Tucson — Arizona's second-largest court. Triggers include "Pima County Superior Court", "file in Pima County", "sued in Pima County", "Tucson superior court", "Pima County courthouse", "Pima local rules", "Pima compulsory arbitration", "Pima FASTAR", "Pima County case number", and "Pima County scheduling order". Covers the court's general civil jurisdiction, the Pima County Superior Court local rules, the FASTAR program that Pima uses in place of ordinary compulsory arbitration for lower-value civil cases, case-management / scheduling-order practice, AZTurboCourt e-filing, and case-type / case-number conventions. Layer on top of `az-statewide-format`. version: 0.1.0 --- # Pima County Superior Court (Tucson) > **NOT LEGAL ADVICE.** These notes describe the venue's > procedural mechanics as a drafting aid, not legal advice. > Local rules and judge-specific practices change; verify with > the clerk and the current local rules before relying on > anything here. Use this skill in addition to `az-statewide-format` when the case is in the **Pima County Superior Court**, seated in **Tucson**. Pima is Arizona's second-most-populous county, and its Superior Court is the state's second-largest, high-volume general-civil trial court after Maricopa. ## Location and divisions - The Superior Court sits in the **Pima County Superior Court / courthouse complex in downtown Tucson**. Confirm the current street address, division/courtroom, and any annex or remote hearing locations with the Clerk of the Superior Court before filing or appearing. - Superior Court is Arizona's single court of general jurisdiction; Pima organizes its civil work into divisions presided over by individual judges, with court commissioners handling certain matters. Confirm your assigned division and the judge's individual practices before noticing anything. - Family, probate/mental-health, and juvenile matters run on separate calendars and rules — see `az-family-court` / `az-family-law`. This skill addresses the **general civil** side. ## Jurisdiction - The Superior Court hears general civil actions; the **Pima County Justice Courts** handle lower-value civil claims and evictions (see `az-justice-courts`). Confirm the amount-in-controversy threshold and any small-claims overlap before choosing the forum. - Equity, special actions, and appeals from the limited- jurisdiction courts also lie in Superior Court. ## Lower-value civil routing — FASTAR (not compulsory arbitration) - Statewide, **A.R.S. § 12-133** and **Ariz. R. Civ. P. 72–77** authorize a county Superior Court to require **compulsory arbitration** of civil money cases at or below a **jurisdictional dollar limit set by local rule**. But Ariz. R. Civ. P. 72(a)(2) lets a county instead establish a **Fast Trial and Alternative Resolution ("FASTAR") program**, in which case the FASTAR Rules apply *instead of* Rules 72–77 within the FASTAR limits. - **Pima County uses FASTAR, not the ordinary compulsory- arbitration track.** Lower-value civil cases are routed into FASTAR — under which a party elects either a short "fast trial" or an arbitration-style alternative-resolution proceeding — rather than the Rules 72–77 compulsory-arbitration process used in counties like Maricopa. - **Do not hard-code the dollar figures or the election mechanics** — the FASTAR threshold and the residual compulsory-arbitration amount are set by Pima local rule and revised periodically. Read the current Pima County Superior Court local rules in `az-law-references`, and confirm with the clerk which track applies to your case and what the controlling thresholds are. For the substantive arbitration/ADR framework see `az-commercial-disputes` and `az-hearings`. ## Pima County Superior Court local rules - Beyond the statewide Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure, Pima County Superior Court operates under its **own local rules** (adopted under the supervision of the Arizona Supreme Court), which govern case assignment, motion practice, the FASTAR / compulsory-arbitration thresholds, scheduling, and local filing conventions. - Read the current Pima local rules from the corpus in `az-law-references` before relying on any page limit, conferral requirement, or motion-call procedure. Where the corpus is a pointer stub rather than verbatim text, **confirm the current rule with the clerk or the court's website**. ## Case-type and case-number conventions - Pima Superior Court civil case numbers follow Arizona's Superior Court pattern — generally a county/court designator, a two- or four-digit year, a case-type code, and a sequential number. **Confirm the exact case-type code and number format the Pima clerk assigns** for your cause of action; the case-type code drives docket routing and the arbitration determination. - Once assigned, the case number anchors the caption per `az-statewide-format`. **Do not guess the case-type code** — verify it against the Pima clerk's intake practice. ## Case management and scheduling orders - After the case is at issue, the court manages civil cases through **case-management and scheduling orders** setting discovery cutoffs, disclosure deadlines (Arizona's Rule 26.1 mandatory disclosure), motion and dispositive-motion dates, ADR/arbitration milestones, and the trial date. - **Calendar your obligations from the scheduling order entered in your specific case**, not from a generic template, and confirm the assigned judge's individual practices, motion-call day, and any chambers-copy or lodging requirement. See `az-schedule-hearing`, `az-hearings`, and `az-deadlines`. **Agent behavior:** before drafting a notice of hearing, setting a page-limited brief, or calendaring a deadline, read the current Pima County Superior Court local rules in `az-law-references`, the scheduling order entered in the case, and the assigned judge's practices. Confirm the FASTAR / compulsory-arbitration thresholds, motion-call procedure, and any chambers-copy requirement with the clerk. ## E-filing — AZTurboCourt - Arizona's statewide electronic-filing platform is **AZTurboCourt**. Pima County Superior Court accepts civil filings through AZTurboCourt; confirm whether e-filing is **mandatory** for your case type and party, the current document-type selections, and the filing-fee / fee-waiver workflow with the clerk. - See `az-file-packet` for packet assembly and preflight and `az-statewide-format` for the statewide document-format requirements. ## Composition - For statewide format and the caption: `az-statewide-format` - For other Arizona venues: `az-maricopa` (Phoenix), `az-superior-courts` (other counties), `az-justice-courts` (limited-jurisdiction / evictions) - For the first responsive pleading: `az-first-30-days` - For drafting motions / declarations / notices / orders: `az-draft-motion`, `az-draft-declaration`, `az-draft-note`, `az-draft-order` - For discovery and Rule 26.1 disclosure: `az-discovery` - For scheduling and hearings: `az-schedule-hearing`, `az-hearings`; deadlines: `az-deadlines` - For arbitration/ADR substance: `az-commercial-disputes` - For filing mechanics: `az-file-packet`; pre-filing QC: `az-quality-check`; citation/quote checking: `az-fact-check` - For pro se conventions: `az-pro-se` ## References - `az-law-references` — Ariz. R. Civ. P., Ariz. R. Evid., A.R.S. (incl. § 12-133 compulsory arbitration), and the Pima County Superior Court local-rules corpus - Pima County Superior Court local rules and the assigned judge's individual practices (confirm current versions with the clerk and the court's website, sc.pima.gov)