Scottsdale Record Clearing Lawyer | Set Aside & Seal

Three Ways a Scottsdale Record Clearing Lawyer Can Help

If you have a criminal record in Scottsdale, you have probably discovered that it does not simply disappear with time. Employers run background checks, landlords screen applicants, and licensing boards ask about convictions. For years, Arizona was one of the harder states in which to move past an old case — but the law has changed dramatically, and there are now three separate legal tools that clean up different parts of your record in different ways. The mistake people make is assuming they are interchangeable. They are not. Choosing the wrong one — or filing in the wrong court — wastes months and can leave your record exactly where it started.

This guide walks through each option in plain English: what a set-aside actually does, how the newer sealing law works, why marijuana is treated differently from everything else, who qualifies, and — critically — where in Scottsdale each petition gets filed. For the statewide framework and step-by-step process, see our overview of how to clear a criminal record in Arizona. Everything below focuses on the Scottsdale reality.

Arizona gives you three distinct forms of relief, and they do genuinely different things. Understanding the difference is the whole game.

• Set-aside (A.R.S. 13-905) — the court “sets aside” the judgment of guilt and dismisses the charges. The conviction still exists in the record, but it is now marked as set aside, and the court can attach a Certificate of Second Chance that removes many licensing and employment barriers. This is the oldest and most widely available tool.
• Sealing (A.R.S. 13-911) — a 2023 law that lets you seal the arrest, conviction, and sentencing records entirely, so they are hidden from public and most background-check view. This is the closest Arizona has to what most people picture when they say “expunge my record.”
• Marijuana expungement (A.R.S. 36-2862) — Arizona’s only true “expungement,” created by Proposition 207. It applies exclusively to certain past marijuana offenses and actually erases them, allowing you to legally say the arrest and conviction never happened.

In many cases the smart strategy combines them — for example, setting aside a conviction and then sealing the record, or expunging an old marijuana charge while sealing a separate case. The right combination depends on your specific charges and goals.

Set-Aside vs. Sealing vs. Marijuana Expungement

The cleanest way to see the difference is side by side. All three are filed in the court of conviction, but what they do to your record — and who qualifies — varies significantly.

Set-Aside & the Certificate of Second Chance (A.R.S. 13-905)

A set-aside is the oldest and most common form of record relief in Arizona. Under A.R.S. 13-905, once you have fulfilled the conditions of probation or your sentence and been discharged by the court, you “may apply to the court to have the judgment of guilt set aside.” If the court grants it, the judgment is set aside, the charges are dismissed, and any civil penalties tied to the conviction are released.

Here is what a set-aside is not: it does not erase or hide the record. The case still appears on a background check, but with an entry showing the judgment was set aside — a meaningful signal to employers and landlords that the court considered you rehabilitated. What makes 13-905 powerful is a provision built into the same statute: the Certificate of Second Chance.

What the Certificate of Second Chance does

The Certificate of Second Chance is part of A.R.S. 13-905 — not a separate statute. When the court sets aside your judgment, it may (and in many cases must) issue a certificate that releases you “from all barriers and disabilities in obtaining an occupational license” and gives employers who hire you added protection from certain negligent-hiring liability. For someone whose old Scottsdale conviction has been blocking a state license — real estate, nursing, contracting, security — the certificate can be the single most valuable piece of paper in the case.

The statute makes the certificate mandatory in certain situations, including for a misdemeanor and for certain felony classes once time requirements are met. Not everyone qualifies for a set-aside, though: A.R.S. 13-905 excludes dangerous offenses, most sex offenses, and offenses involving a victim who was a minor, among others. An attorney can confirm whether your specific charge is eligible before you file.

Sealing Your Record Under A.R.S. 13-911

Sealing is the newest and, for many people, the most complete relief. Effective in 2023, A.R.S. 13-911 lets you petition to seal the records of your arrest, conviction, and sentence. Once sealed, the case is hidden from public view and from most background checks, and in most situations you may lawfully state that you were never arrested, charged, or convicted for that offense.

Sealing is available not just to people who were convicted, but also to those whose charges were dismissed, who were found not guilty, or who were arrested but never charged. For dismissals and acquittals there is generally no waiting period. For convictions, the clock starts after you complete the non-monetary conditions of your sentence, and the wait depends on the seriousness of the offense.

Marijuana Expungement Under A.R.S. 36-2862

Marijuana is the one category Arizona treats completely differently. Under A.R.S. 36-2862 — created by Proposition 207 — certain past marijuana offenses can be truly expunged, the only offenses in Arizona for which that word properly applies. Petitions have been allowed since July 12, 2021, and once granted, the arrest, charge, and conviction are erased. You may then lawfully state the incident never happened.

Three categories of past conduct are eligible for marijuana expungement:

• Possessing, consuming, or transporting 2.5 ounces or less of marijuana (no more than 12.5 grams of it as concentrate);
• Possessing, transporting, cultivating, or processing six or fewer plants at your primary residence for personal use; and
• Possessing, using, or transporting marijuana paraphernalia.

If your only Scottsdale record is an old marijuana possession or paraphernalia case, expungement is almost always the better route than set-aside or sealing, because it actually removes the offense rather than annotating or hiding it. For a deeper walkthrough, see our guide to marijuana expungement in Arizona.

Restoring Your Civil and Firearm Rights

A felony conviction also strips certain civil rights — the right to vote, to serve on a jury, to hold public office, and to possess a firearm. Restoring those rights is a separate process from clearing the record, governed by A.R.S. 13-905 through 13-908. For a first felony, several civil rights are often restored automatically upon completion of probation or sentence; a firearm right and rights after multiple felonies typically require a specific application to the court.

Restoration of rights and a set-aside are frequently handled together, because both become available once you have completed your sentence and been discharged. If a past felony is keeping you from voting or lawfully owning a firearm in Scottsdale, ask counsel to evaluate rights restoration alongside your record-relief options.

Where Do You File in Scottsdale?

This is where people most often go wrong. Every one of these petitions — set-aside, sealing, and marijuana expungement — is filed in the court of conviction: the specific court that handled your original case. In Scottsdale, that means one of two places depending on the level of the offense.

• Scottsdale City Court handles the city’s misdemeanors — most first-offense DUIs, disorderly conduct, shoplifting under the felony threshold, and similar charges filed by Scottsdale police or city prosecutors. If your case was resolved there, your petition goes back there. Learn more about that court on our Scottsdale City Court page.
• Maricopa County Superior Court handles felonies. If your Scottsdale arrest led to a felony charge — a felony DUI, aggravated assault, or a higher-level theft — the case was prosecuted at Superior Court, and that is where the petition to set aside or seal it must be filed.

Getting this right matters: a sealing petition filed in the wrong court will not clear a record held somewhere else. If you had multiple cases — say a city-court DUI and a separate Superior Court felony — you may need to file in both. A local defense attorney who knows both courthouses can map exactly what needs to be filed and where. Start with our Scottsdale criminal defense lawyer page for how we handle local cases.

Clearing an Old Old Town Record for Jobs and Housing

Scottsdale generates a very particular kind of old record. A weekend in Old Town — the bars along Saddlebag Trail and Stetson Drive, the crowds around the entertainment district — produces a steady stream of first-time DUIs, disorderly conduct arrests after a fight or a loud argument, and shoplifting cases out of the Fashion Square and Kierland retail corridors. Many of these involve people who were otherwise law-abiding, had one bad night years ago, and have never been in trouble since.

Those are exactly the cases record relief was built for. A ten-year-old Class 1 misdemeanor DUI can, once the three-year sealing window has passed, be sealed under 13-911 — hidden from the background check a new employer or a Scottsdale apartment complex runs. A disorderly conduct plea can be set aside under 13-905, with a Certificate of Second Chance clearing the path to an occupational license. An old marijuana paraphernalia charge can be expunged outright under 36-2862. The common thread is that time has passed, you have stayed clean, and the record is now doing nothing but holding you back.

How Tamou Law Group Clears Scottsdale Records

We start by finding out exactly what is on your record and where it lives. That means pulling the full case history from Scottsdale City Court or Maricopa County Superior Court, confirming the charge level and disposition, and calculating the precise date any sealing waiting period opens. From there we match each offense to the relief that fits — set-aside, sealing, marijuana expungement, or a combination — and screen for the exclusions and later convictions that can quietly sink a petition.

Then we build and file. A set-aside and a sealing petition are partly discretionary, so we assemble the rehabilitation record — clean time, treatment, employment, community ties — that gives a judge every reason to grant relief, and we pursue the Certificate of Second Chance where it unlocks a license or job. Our team includes former prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and public defenders who have stood on every side of a Maricopa County case. Call 623-321-4699 for a confidential consultation, or read the statewide process in our guide to clearing a criminal record in Arizona.