Law Firms in Phoenix, AZ

Hiring a lawyer in Phoenix: what is different

The ordinary limitation period is two years from the injury, under section 12-542 of the Arizona Revised Statutes. A claim against a public entity or a public employee runs on a far shorter track: a written notice of claim within 180 days under section 12-821.01, and suit within one year under section 12-821.

That notice is stricter than most. The statute requires it to contain a specific amount for which the claim can be settled and the facts supporting that amount, and a notice that leaves the figure out has been held insufficient. It is the kind of requirement that ends a good claim on a technicality.

Arizona is at the opposite end of the directory on two other things. Fault is purely comparative under section 12-2505, so a claimant mostly to blame still recovers the remainder rather than nothing. And the state constitution forbids the legislature from abrogating the right to recover damages, which is why Arizona has no cap on damages in any kind of case, medical malpractice included.

Maricopa County hears civil matters in its Superior Court, and federal cases go to the District of Arizona. The Valley is one legal market: a firm in Scottsdale, Tempe or Mesa appears in the same courthouse as one downtown.

What we can and cannot verify about an Arizona firm

Not the registration, and the reason is worth stating plainly. Arizona’s corporate register redirects to a service whose robots file asks automated readers not to crawl any of it. That is an instruction rather than a technical obstacle, and we follow it, so entity registration is recorded here as a check without a source.

Discipline is a separate gap. Arizona runs attorney discipline before a presiding disciplinary judge and publishes the outcomes on the courts’ own site rather than as Supreme Court opinions, so the index that carries Pennsylvania and Nevada holds none of Arizona’s.

The State Bar of Arizona publishes a member search with status and public discipline, which takes a minute to check and is the check we cannot do for you.

Deadlines that catch Arizonans out

• Personal injury: two years from the injury, under A.R.S. § 12-542.
• A claim against the City of Phoenix, Maricopa County, Valley Metro or a school district: written notice within 180 days under A.R.S. § 12-821.01, stating a specific settlement figure, and suit within one year under § 12-821.
• Wrongful death: two years from the death.
• Medical malpractice: two years, with no cap on what can be recovered, which is unusual and is a matter of the state constitution rather than of policy.