A Legal MinutePrivacy & public records
Who Looks at Probate Court Records
The short answer
Anyone can request an unsealed probate file; in Maricopa County this is done with a records request form, which the court keeps. In the speaker's experience, the people who most often pull new probate files are real estate investors looking to buy estate property and creditors looking for the right person to contact.
From the full episode Privacy in Arizona Probate: What Becomes Public (17:49).
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Transcript
Anyone can go down and pull any file that's not sealed. There is a records request form in Maricopa County specifically where you put your name, the parties, the case information, and what documents you're requesting. The court holds on to that, so if there's ever an issue later, we can see who requested the documents.
What I have seen people use the probate documents for, and this is going to sound kind of yucky: there are real estate investors that will go pull the fresh probates to get the contact information for the person that's becoming appointed, and they will start bombarding them to buy the estate property. Creditors will pull the file to see who the right person is to send it to.
So, those are really the two that would access these files and use them. I don't necessarily see somebody going down and pulling the files just because they're curious. But it is public record and it is open.
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