Arizona § 8-120 Records; inspection; exception; destruction or transfer of certain records

Arizona Statutes

§ 8-120 — Records; inspection; exception; destruction or transfer of certain records

Arizona § 8-120

Title 8Arizona Revised Statutes

Ch. 1ADOPTION

Art. 1General Provisions

This text of Arizona § 8-120 (Records; inspection; exception; destruction or transfer of certain records) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 8-120 (2026).

Text

A.Except as provided in section 8-129, all files, records, reports and other papers compiled under this article, whether filed in or in possession of the court, an agency or any person or association, shall be withheld from public inspection.

B.Such files, records, reports and other papers may be open to inspection by persons and agencies having a legitimate interest in the case and their attorneys and by other persons and agencies having a legitimate interest in the protection, welfare or treatment of the child if so ordered by the court.

C.This section does not prohibit persons employed by the court, the division or an agency from conducting the investigations or performing other duties pursuant to this article within the normal course of their employment.

D.This section does not

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A. Except as provided in section 8-129, all files, records, reports and other papers compiled under this article, whether filed in or in possession of the court, an agency or any person or association, shall be withheld from public inspection.

B. Such files, records, reports and other papers may be open to inspection by persons and agencies having a legitimate interest in the case and their attorneys and by other persons and agencies having a legitimate interest in the protection, welfare or treatment of the child if so ordered by the court.

C. This section does not prohibit persons employed by the court, the division or an agency from conducting the investigations or performing other duties pursuant to this article within the normal course of their employment.

D. This section does not prohibit persons employed by the court, the division, an attorney participating or assisting in a direct placement adoption pursuant to section 8-130 or an agency from providing partial or complete identifying information between a birth parent and adoptive parent when the parties mutually agree to share specific identifying information and make a written request to the court, the division or the agency.

E. Except for files that belong to an attorney, all files, records, reports and other papers not filed in or in the possession of the court shall not be destroyed until after a ninety-nine year period. The files that belong to an attorney shall not be destroyed until after a seven-year period.

F. If an adoption agency ceases operations, the adoption agency shall do all of the following:

1. Transfer the documents described in subsection A of this section to the division or to another adoption agency in this state if the documents concern a matter that is closed.

2. Transfer the documents described in subsection A of this section to another adoption agency in this state if the documents concern a matter that is open.

3. Notify the division of the transfer of any documents to another adoption agency in this state pursuant to this subsection.

4. Notify all adoptive parents whose files it is transferring pursuant to this subsection of the transfer.