Which Phoenix courthouse has your case and why it changes service

Downtown Phoenix street lined with court buildings, where you check which court your case is in

Downtown Phoenix has more courthouses packed into a few blocks than most Arizona towns have in total. If you are about to hire someone to serve papers, the first useful question is not "who" but "which court." The answer tells you what deadline you are working against, which rules apply, and how much room you have if the other side is hard to find.

Here is how it breaks down for a case filed in Phoenix, in plain terms. This is general information, not legal advice. If anything about your own filing is unclear, ask a lawyer or the clerk.

The three kinds of court you will run into

Maricopa County Superior Court

Superior Court is the county's general trial court, and most of its Phoenix buildings sit around Jefferson, Madison and Washington streets. According to the court's own location list, the Central Court Building at 201 W. Jefferson handles criminal and family matters, the East Court Building at 101 W. Jefferson handles civil and probate, and the Old Courthouse at 125 W. Washington also houses probate and mental health. The Northeast Regional Center on 40th Street is listed for family cases too.

Divorces, larger civil lawsuits, probate disputes and custody cases land here. Service follows the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure, or the family law rules for family cases.

The justice courts on Jackson Street

Maricopa County splits its justice courts into precincts, and several of them share one building at 620 W. Jackson Street: Arcadia Biltmore, El Centro, Encanto, South Mountain and West McDowell. Other Phoenix addresses belong to precincts housed elsewhere, including the four at 18380 N. 40th Street (Desert Ridge, Dreamy Draw, McDowell Mountain and Moon Valley) and the west Valley group in Avondale, which includes Maryvale.

Under A.R.S. 22-201, justice courts hear civil cases where the amount involved is $10,000 or less, not counting interest, costs and allowed attorney fees. They also hear most residential evictions in Maricopa County. Which precinct you file in depends on the address, and the justice courts point people to the county's interactive elections map to look that up.

Phoenix Municipal Court

The city court at 300 W. Washington handles traffic matters, misdemeanors and protective orders. It is not where you file a lawsuit over money. People mix it up with the justice courts all the time, mostly because both feel like "the small court downtown."

Why the court changes the job

The clock is different

In a Superior Court civil case, the Superior Court's service FAQ says the summons and complaint generally have to be served within 90 days after you file. Miss it and the case against anyone not served can be dismissed, though a judge can extend the time in some situations. That sounds like a lot of time. It is not, once you subtract a week to get the summons issued, two weeks of a server trying the wrong apartment, and the defendant's vacation.

Evictions run on a far shorter fuse. According to the Arizona courts' eviction instructions, the summons and complaint have to be served at least two days before the initial appearance. Your server has days, not months, so tell them up front that it is an eviction and give them the hearing date.

The method rules are mostly the same

Across Superior Court and justice court civil cases, personal service on an individual normally means one of two things: handing the papers to the person, or leaving them at their home with someone of suitable age and discretion who lives there. Eviction cases add an option to post the papers in an obvious place and send a copy by certified mail.

What changes is the paperwork that comes after. Each court wants proof of service filed in its own case, under its own case number. A server who works downtown every week will know which clerk's office gets the affidavit and how it is filed. One who mostly works the far West Valley may not, and that costs you a day.

Getting papers back to the right building

A small but real headache in Phoenix: a lot of people file in one building and look for their documents in another. If your summons came out of East Court, the proof of service goes into that civil case, not to the Jackson Street justice courts across downtown. Write the court name and case number on everything you hand your server.

What to give your server for a Phoenix case

Send all of this in one email and you will save a round of phone tag:

the court name and case number, exactly as on the summons
the filing date, or the hearing date for an eviction
every address you have for the person, with a note on which is newest
a photo or physical description if you have one
work hours or a schedule if you know it
anything about the building: gate codes, call box names, a doorman

Only certified process servers, sheriffs, constables and their deputies can serve the papers, and the Superior Court's FAQ is blunt that you cannot serve your own documents. Every process server listed on Served & Found is on the Arizona Supreme Court's certified list, and you can browse the ones working in the city on our Phoenix process servers page. Integrity Attorney Services is one Phoenix-based firm in that list.

If you are still unsure what "service" even covers, our plain-English guide to what service of process is is a good five-minute read before you call anyone. For more on the city itself, start from the Phoenix town page.

One check before you hire

Look at your summons and find the court name printed at the top. If it says Justice Court, look for the precinct name too. That one line answers most of the questions above, and it is the first thing a good server will ask you for anyway.

See the board: everyone in Phoenix · process servers only.