A Legal MinutePrivacy & public records
Why Probate Records are Public in Arizona
The short answer
Probate cases in Arizona are generally public record unless sealed, and most sealed cases involve a minor, such as a conservatorship matter. The probate information sheet, with personal details like birth and death dates and Social Security numbers for the proposed personal representative and the decedent, is filed under seal and is not public.
From the full episode Privacy in Arizona Probate: What Becomes Public (17:49).
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Transcript
When we file a probate in Arizona or any kind of basically court action, it is public record unless it's sealed. Most cases that are sealed, it's because there's a minor involved, i.e. it's a conservatorship matter, and so we don't want anybody to just be able to go down and pull records on a minor. But probates are open.
The only documents that are basically not part of the public record is something called a probate information sheet. That is something that we prepare in the beginning to open the matter, and it has personal details for the person asking to be the personal representative as well as the decedent. It will include sensitive information such as date of birth, date of death, Social Security numbers. And so that is so the court can open the file and open the matter and know who's, you know, make sure it's the right decedent, right person, we don't have any overlap. To cross-reference. And that gets filed under seal. So that's not something someone can go down and pull.
A lot of my clients are uncomfortable giving me that information, and once I explain that that is not part of the public record, we're usually good to go.
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