Arizona Court Case Abbreviations: Reporters, Statutes, and Citations

Arizona court case abbreviations are the shorthand used across Arizona citations, filings, and dockets to identify courts (Ariz., Ariz. Ct. App.), published opinions (Ariz., P.3d), statutes (A.R.S.), procedural rules (Ariz. R. Civ. P. and its siblings), and case types (CV, CR, D, PB, JV, TX). Read them correctly and a citation tells you which court decided the case, where the opinion is printed, and what kind of dispute it was.

Arizona Court Abbreviations

Each level of Arizona’s court system has its own short form, and the short form doubles as a signal of how much weight a decision carries.

  • Ariz. — the Arizona Supreme Court, the state’s highest court. When you see only “Ariz.” in the parenthetical at the end of a citation, the Supreme Court decided the case. No extra court identifier is needed because the Arizona Reports volumes are associated with the Supreme Court.
  • Ariz. Ct. App. — the Arizona Court of Appeals, the intermediate appellate court. This court sits in two divisions, so citations usually include the division: (Ariz. Ct. App. Div. 1 2023) or (Ariz. Ct. App. Div. 2 2023). Division One is based in Phoenix, Division Two in Tucson.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 12-120 – Creation of Court of Appeals; Court of Record; Composition; Sessions
  • Super. Ct. — the Arizona Superior Court, the trial court of general jurisdiction that handles felonies, larger civil cases, family law, and probate. Its decisions rarely appear in published reporters, but when cited they use this abbreviation.

Case Reporter Abbreviations

Reporter abbreviations tell you which book (or database volume) contains the full opinion. The same case can appear in more than one reporter, each with its own volume and page numbering.

Ariz. — Arizona Reports

Arizona Reports is the official state reporter. It carries published opinions from the Arizona Supreme Court and, since 1976, from the Arizona Court of Appeals as well. The bound volumes are the final, official versions of those decisions.2Arizona Judicial Branch. Opinions and Memorandum Decisions Home A citation like 245 Ariz. 100 means the opinion begins on page 100 of volume 245.

Ariz. App. — Arizona Appeals Reports (historical)

From 1965 to 1976, Court of Appeals decisions were printed in a separate set called the Arizona Appeals Reports, abbreviated Ariz. App. You will still see it in older citations. Anything after that period is in Arizona Reports under the standard Ariz. abbreviation.

P., P.2d, P.3d — Pacific Reporter

The Pacific Reporter is an unofficial, regional reporter published by West that collects appellate decisions from Arizona and other western states. It runs in three series: P. (first), P.2d (second), and P.3d (third, currently in use). A parallel citation to both the official and unofficial reporters reads: 245 Ariz. 100, 456 P.3d 1000.

A.R.S. and Court Rule Abbreviations

A.R.S. — Arizona Revised Statutes

Every codified law passed by the Arizona Legislature sits in the Arizona Revised Statutes, abbreviated A.R.S. The statute itself directs the citation format: “A.R.S.” followed by the title, a dash, and the section.3Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 1-101 – Designation and Citation So A.R.S. § 13-1203 points to title 13 (the Criminal Code), section 1203 (Assault). The Arizona Administrative Code uses the same format when it references statutes.4Legal Information Institute. Arizona Code R1-1-409 – Citations to the Code, Register, Statutes, and Federal Laws and Regulations

Procedural Rules

Arizona has separate rule sets for different types of proceedings, and each has both a formal Bluebook-style abbreviation and a compact shorthand used in everyday Arizona practice. Both refer to the same rules.

  • Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure: Ariz. R. Civ. P. or A.R.C.P.
  • Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure: Ariz. R. Crim. P. or A.R.Cr.P.
  • Arizona Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure: Ariz. R. Civ. App. P. or A.R.A.P.
  • Arizona Rules of Evidence: Ariz. R. Evid.
  • Arizona Rules of Juvenile Procedure: Ariz. R. Juv. P.
  • Arizona Rules of Procedure for Special Actions: Ariz. R. P. Special Actions
  • Arizona Rules of Professional Conduct: Ariz. Rules of Prof’l Conduct (found in Rule 42, Ariz. Sup. Ct. R.)
  • Arizona Supreme Court Rules: Ariz. Sup. Ct. R.

The abbreviation tells you which set of procedures applies. A motion citing Ariz. R. Civ. P. 56 is invoking the summary judgment rule in a civil case; a motion citing Ariz. R. Crim. P. 20 is arguing for a judgment of acquittal in a criminal trial.

Case-Type Prefixes on Docket Numbers

Every Arizona case gets a number when it is filed, and the first one or two letters identify the type of case. These prefixes appear on every court document, and they are the fastest way to tell what kind of dispute you are looking at.

  • CV: civil
  • CR: criminal
  • D or DM: divorce or family law
  • PB: probate
  • JV: juvenile
  • TX: tax

A full Arizona docket number usually combines the court location code, the case-type prefix, a sequential number, and the filing year. A Maricopa County Superior Court criminal case might read CR2025-012345.

Party and Document Abbreviations in Filings

Beyond citations, Arizona dockets and filings are dense with shorthand for the people involved and the documents they file. The ones that trip up non-lawyers most often:

  • Plf. or Pltf.: plaintiff
  • Def. or Dft.: defendant
  • Resp.: respondent
  • Pet.: petitioner (or petition, depending on context)
  • Mot.: motion
  • Mem.: memorandum
  • Aff.: affidavit
  • Stip.: stipulation
  • J. or Judg.: judgment
  • M.E.: minute entry
  • R&R: report and recommendation
  • O.R.: own recognizance (release without bail)
  • PSR: presentence report

Minute entries are worth calling out. In Arizona, a minute entry is the court’s official written record of orders, rulings, and scheduling decisions made during a proceeding. When someone tells you to “check the minute entry,” they mean the document labeled M.E. on the docket.

Reading a Full Arizona Case Citation

All of these abbreviations come together in a single line. Take this fictional example:

State v. Doe, 245 Ariz. 100, 456 P.3d 1000 (Ct. App. Div. 1 2020).

  • State v. Doe — the case name. The “v.” stands for “versus.”
  • 245 Ariz. 100 — volume 245 of Arizona Reports, starting at page 100. Official citation.
  • 456 P.3d 1000 — volume 456 of the Pacific Reporter, Third Series, starting at page 1000. Parallel, unofficial citation.
  • (Ct. App. Div. 1 2020) — the Court of Appeals, Division One, decided the case in 2020.

If the parenthetical said only “(2020)” with no court identifier, that would signal an Arizona Supreme Court decision, because the Ariz. reporter already implies the Supreme Court. The court identifier only gets added when the deciding court would not be obvious from the reporter alone.

Pinpoint Citations

When an argument relies on a specific passage, the citation adds the exact page after the starting page: 245 Ariz. 100, 105, 456 P.3d 1000, 1005 (Ct. App. Div. 1 2020). Both reporter references get pinpoint pages so the reader can locate the passage in whichever volume they have.

Parallel Citations

Arizona’s rules on parallel citations have shifted. For civil appeals, the Arizona Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure have not required parallel citations since January 1, 2015; filings in the Arizona Supreme Court need only cite Arizona Reports. Arizona Rule of Criminal Procedure 31.13(c)(vi) still references citing unofficial reports “when possible,” though the Supreme Court has signaled it will not enforce that requirement strictly. Many practitioners still include both the Ariz. and P.3d references as a courtesy, since not every reader has access to the official state volumes.