Can Aggravated Assault Be Sealed in Arizona? ARS 13-911

Can You Expunge Aggravated Assault in Arizona?

If you finished your sentence years ago, the conviction itself may feel like history — but the background check does not. Whether an aggravated assault can come off your record in Arizona depends almost entirely on how the offense was charged and what the plea paperwork says, and two people convicted under the same statute can get opposite answers.

This guide walks through both record-relief tools — sealing under ARS 13-911 and the set-aside under ARS 13-905 — as they apply specifically to aggravated assault. For the elements and felony classes of the underlying charge, see our complete guide to aggravated assault under ARS 13-1204.

Not in the technical sense — Arizona law does not offer “expungement” for assault offenses. What people searching for how to expunge aggravated assault actually need is one of two statutes:

• Record sealing under ARS 13-911. If granted, the court seals all case records of the arrest, conviction and sentence, and in most situations you may lawfully state you were never arrested for or convicted of the offense — including on job, housing, financial aid and loan applications. It is the closest thing Arizona has to expungement; see our guide to sealing a criminal record in Arizona.
• Setting aside the judgment under ARS 13-905. The court sets aside the judgment of guilt, dismisses the charging document and releases you from most penalties and disabilities. The conviction stays publicly visible, but it shows as set aside — and for many aggravated assault convictions it is the only relief available.

For aggravated assault the differences between the two are decisive: sealing has a hard list of excluded offenses, and the set-aside a much shorter one.

Which Aggravated Assault Convictions Can Be Sealed Under ARS 13-911?

Only the ones that avoid every exclusion in ARS 13-911(O) — and for aggravated assault, three of those exclusions do most of the damage:

• Dangerous offenses can never be sealed. Under ARS 13-105, a dangerous offense is one involving the discharge, use or threatening exhibition of a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument, or the intentional or knowing infliction of serious physical injury. If your case carried a dangerousness allegation that stuck at conviction, sealing is off the table permanently.
• Weapon and serious-injury elements bar sealing even without a dangerous designation. ARS 13-911(O)(4) separately excludes any offense that has, as an element, the discharge, use or threatening exhibition of a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument, or the knowing infliction of serious physical injury. A conviction under ARS 13-1204(A)(2) — aggravated assault with a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument — is built on that element, so it cannot be sealed even if the dangerous designation was dropped in the plea.
• “Serious offenses” under ARS 13-706 are excluded too. That statute’s list includes aggravated assault resulting in serious physical injury or involving a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument. This catches serious-injury convictions that might otherwise slip past the element-based exclusion.

ARS 13-911(O) also excludes dangerous crimes against children, which sweeps in aggravated assault sentenced under ARS 13-705 because the victim was under fifteen.

What is left? The aggravated assault variants that involve neither a weapon nor serious physical injury. Under ARS 13-1204, those include assault causing a fracture or temporary but substantial disfigurement, assault on a bound or restrained victim, assault after entering a private home, assault in violation of an order of protection, assault on teachers, health care workers and other protected victims where no weapon or serious injury was involved, and strangulation-based aggravated assault under subsection B.

How Long Do You Have to Wait to Seal an Aggravated Assault Record?

For an eligible conviction, ARS 13-911(E) starts the clock when you complete all nonmonetary terms of the sentence and are discharged by the court:

• Ten years for a class 2 or 3 felony.
• Five years for a class 4, 5 or 6 felony — the tier covering nearly every sealable aggravated assault, since the class 3 variants involve weapons or serious injury and are excluded anyway.
• Three years for a class 1 misdemeanor, if the charge was reduced to simple assault.

Three timing rules trip people up. First, every fine, fee and restitution order must be fully paid before you file — unpaid restitution is one of the most common reasons petitions fail. Second, a later felony conviction adds five years to the waiting period for the earlier record. Third, if your case ended in a dismissal, an acquittal or an arrest with no charges filed, you can petition to seal those records without any waiting period at all.

Can You Get a Set-Aside for Aggravated Assault Under ARS 13-905?

Often, yes — and for weapon and serious-injury convictions, the set-aside is usually the only realistic option. ARS 13-905(P) excludes far fewer cases than the sealing statute: a set-aside is unavailable only for dangerous offenses, offenses requiring sex offender registration, offenses with a sexual-motivation finding, and felonies in which the victim was under fifteen.

Notice what is missing: there is no element-based weapon exclusion. That creates the central asymmetry in aggravated assault record relief. If you pled guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon but the dangerousness allegation was dropped — a common plea structure — your conviction can never be sealed, yet you may still apply to have it set aside. If the conviction was designated dangerous, both doors are closed.

A set-aside is discretionary. The court weighs the nature of the offense, your compliance on probation or in prison, prior and later convictions, victim input and restitution status, how much time has passed, and your age at conviction. There is no filing fee, and the statute imposes no waiting period for the set-aside itself — you may apply as soon as you are discharged. The mechanics are covered in our guide to setting aside a conviction in Arizona.

What Is a Certificate of Second Chance and When Do You Get One?

The Certificate of Second Chance rides along with a set-aside under ARS 13-905(K). The court must include it in the set-aside order once enough time has passed since you fulfilled the conditions of your sentence: immediately for a misdemeanor, two years for a class 4, 5 or 6 felony, and five years for a class 2 or 3 felony.

For someone with an aggravated assault conviction, the certificate does three concrete things: it releases most barriers to occupational licenses issued under title 32, it gives employers who hire you statutory protection from negligent-hiring claims under ARS 12-558.03, and it extends similar protections to landlords — which is often what finally unlocks housing applications. You can receive it only once for a felony set-aside, so timing matters. Details and strategy are in our guide to the Certificate of Second Chance in Arizona.

Does Sealing or a Set-Aside Restore Your Gun Rights?

Sometimes — and the same weapon-and-injury line controls. Under ARS 13-905(O), a set-aside automatically restores the right to possess a firearm, unless the conviction was a serious offense as defined in ARS 13-706. Because that definition includes aggravated assault involving serious physical injury or a deadly weapon, a set-aside on those convictions does not bring gun rights back; separate restoration proceedings are required. A set-aside on a non-weapon, non-serious-injury aggravated assault — a fracture case or a strangulation case, for example — does restore firearm rights automatically.

Sealing, by contrast, contains no firearm-restoration provision at all. Sealing hides the record; it does not undo the conviction’s legal disabilities. That is one reason most people with eligible convictions pursue both remedies, not just one.

What Will Employers See After Your Record Is Sealed?

If sealing is granted, ARS 13-911(I) lets you state — on employment, housing, financial aid and loan applications — that you were never arrested for, charged with or convicted of the offense. The Department of Public Safety marks the record sealed and may share it only with courts, prosecutors, police and a short list of other agencies, so commercial background checks should come back clean once databases update.

But the statute writes in exceptions, and one is aimed directly at this offense: if your sealed case involved aggravated assault under ARS 13-1204 and you apply for a job supervising, educating or caring for minors, you must still disclose it. The same is true when you apply for a fingerprint clearance card — the Board of Fingerprinting can still see and consider sealed convictions, though the statute directs it to treat sealing as a mitigating circumstance — and when you apply to work for law enforcement agencies, prosecutors’ offices, courts, probation departments or child welfare agencies.

How Does the Sealing Process Work in Maricopa County?

The petition is filed in the court where you were convicted — for most felony aggravated assaults, Maricopa County Superior Court. From there, ARS 13-911 sets the sequence:

• DPS investigation. The court asks the Department of Public Safety for a report covering your full state and federal history; DPS may charge an investigation fee.
• A sixty-day floor. The court cannot rule for at least sixty days unless both the prosecutor and any victims who requested notice affirmatively do not object.
• Prosecutor and victim participation. The prosecutor may respond and request a hearing, and the victim of the assault has a statutory right to be present and heard. In assault cases, defense attorneys commonly see victim objections drive the hearing, so a petition that documents restitution paid in full and years of clean history carries real weight.
• The standard. The court grants the petition if sealing is in the best interests of both the petitioner and the public’s safety — a discretionary call, not a rubber stamp.
• Denial has a price. If the petition is denied, you cannot file again for three years, which makes filing before eligibility is airtight a costly mistake.

The most common failure point in Arizona courts is not the hearing — it is the paperwork behind the conviction. The dangerousness finding, the exact subsection of conviction and the restitution balance all need to be verified before a petition has a realistic chance.

How Tamou Law Group Helps You Clean Up an Assault Record

Record relief for aggravated assault starts with a document review, not a form: we pull the judgment, the plea agreement and the restitution ledger to determine which subsection you were convicted under, whether a dangerousness allegation survived, and which of the two statutes — or both — you can actually use. From there we sequence the filings: set-aside and Certificate of Second Chance as soon as the statute allows, sealing when the waiting period runs, and firearm-rights analysis alongside both.

Our team includes former prosecutors who know how these charges were pled and what the county attorney’s office looks for when deciding whether to object. If your conviction is not eligible today, we map what would make it eligible — and if you are facing a new charge, our Arizona assault defense practice fights the case with the record-relief endgame already in mind, because the difference between a sealable and an unsealable conviction is often one line in a plea agreement. Call 623-321-4699 for a confidential consultation about your specific record.