A Legal MinutePrivacy & public records
Can Probate Cases Be Kept Private
The short answer
Generally, a whole probate matter cannot be sealed just because someone wants privacy. When possible, the inventory and accounting can be sent to beneficiaries instead of filed, or protected under seal if a judge needs to review them. Formal-probate hearing notices and notices to creditors are published in a newspaper.
From the full episode Privacy in Arizona Probate: What Becomes Public (17:49).
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Transcript
Honestly, as long as you are, if you can, sending out the inventory, sending out the accounting, you know, to the beneficiaries, not filing with the court if you don't have to, or protecting it if you do have to get it approved by the court, that's really all we can do. We can't ask to seal a whole matter because somebody wants to be private. Unfortunately, that's just kind of how it goes.
Also, if we have to do a formal probate where we need a judge, I have to publish notice of that hearing in a local newspaper. So, it goes out to the world. When we do a notice to creditors, it also has to be published in a newspaper. So, again, we're giving everybody notice.
So we limit it as much as we can with keeping the sensitive information out of the docket if we can, or sealing it if the judge needs to look at it, but there's not much you can do for the regular filings as we move through the process.
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