Arizona Public Records

The state of Arizona has a public records law. This particular law entitles every resident to access the Arizona Public Records generates. This helps the government officials to monitor the activities of its residents as well as other officials.

These public records may include any type of document that may be necessary or vital in one's activities or transactions. One of the most common is the birth certificate. Birth certificates are used primarily when dealing with any legal matters. It would serve as a proof of one's identity. Other types of public documents includes death certificates, marriage and divorce licenses. A more serious and sensitive document includes the criminal records of the state. Such document is used mainly for background check.

It is recommended to request for a copy of a public document at the office where the incident has been registered. One should have an idea as to where the public document can be obtained to avoid the hassle. Records of birth, death, marriage and divorce are available at the office of the Vital Records Section. It can also be obtained at the office of the county clerk where the incident occurred.  Criminal records, on the other hand are available at the office of the Department of Public Safety. The county court office can also help with the search. Aside from going to the offices mentioned, one can send a mail request addressed to the appropriate office, however, it can take days before the results of the search are delivered.

To hasten the search, one has to provide the basic information about the document of interest. By providing the name of the person on the file as well as important dates and places, the search can be simplified thus saving time, energy and cost. It is also important to indicate the personal information of the one who filed the request. This will be used only to document and track the access to the file.

The cost would actually depend on the type of file being requested. It can range from $5 to $50 depending on the type and number of pages. Criminal record would cost more as there are a lot of security and confidential information obtained from it. Fingerprint search would cost much more than the name based search because of the equipments and technology used for it.  

Now that we are in the information era and the Internet is used as a medium to share information, obtaining a copy of the public document has become breeze. Doing the search online is hassle free. Not only that, but you can also save time in the process since the results are displayed almost instantly. There are a lot of websites out there that offer to obtain any of the public documents that you need. Some would offer a free government public records search while some would charge a certain fee for the retrieval of a particular document. However, many still prefer the paid option to get the best possible results.