TLDR
- Arizona gives the prosecutor seven years to file most felony charges and one year to file most misdemeanor charges.
- The clock starts when the police or the prosecutor learn of the offense, which is not always the day it happened.
- Murder, several sex offenses and a short list of other crimes carry no filing deadline at all.
- Time you spend outside Arizona does not count, and a dismissed case gives the prosecutor six more months to refile.
The short answer for most Arizona cases
Arizona’s filing-deadline law sets the window by the class of the offense. As of 2026, the windows run this way. A class 2 through class 6 felony gives the prosecutor seven years. A misdemeanor gives the prosecutor one year. A petty offense gives the prosecutor six months.
A charge counts as filed when the prosecutor files a complaint, an information or an indictment with a court. Nothing before that moment counts. An arrest is not a filing. A police report is not a filing. A detective’s voicemail is not a filing. A release from jail with no complaint filed ends that booking, not the case.
Most people measure from the wrong date. They count from the arrest, or from the day a detective first called, and decide the case died after a few quiet months. The prosecutor counts from a different date and holds a longer window than most people expect. Our post on being under investigation but not charged covers what the quiet period usually means.
The deadline is a ceiling, not a schedule. In Maricopa County, most felony cases with a known suspect get filed within months of the report. The seven-year window matters on the cases that sit, which tend to involve a lab backlog, a reluctant witness or a detective who moved on to other files.
When the clock starts
The window runs from the day the police agency or the prosecutor’s office learned of the offense, or the day they should have learned of it with reasonable care, whichever comes first. For a bar fight with a 911 call and an officer on scene, the clock starts that night. For a theft from an employer that nobody notices for two years, the clock starts when the loss turns up, not when the money left.
When a report was made the same night, counting from the incident date is safe. When nobody reported anything, do not assume the window closed. A shortage found in an audit, an assault reported a year later, a drug sale on a recording nobody reviewed, each starts its own clock on the day it surfaces.
The second trap is the class of the charge. The class sets the window, and the prosecutor picks the class. Conduct you think of as a misdemeanor assault turns into aggravated assault, a felony, when the prosecutor alleges a weapon, a serious injury or a victim in a protected job. One year becomes seven. On a prefile investigation, the first question a lawyer asks is which class the police report supports, because that answer sets the deadline.
A domestic violence label does not change the math. The label attaches to an underlying charge, and the class of that underlying charge sets the window.
Crimes with no deadline
Some charges have no filing deadline. The prosecutor files them at any time, including decades after the event. The list covers any homicide, a conspiracy to commit homicide that ends in a death, class 2 felony sex offenses, class 2 felony sexual exploitation of a child, violent sexual assault, child sex trafficking, terrorism, misuse of public money, felony falsification of public records, and an attempt to commit any crime on that list.
Cold-case arrests live here. A DNA match on a twenty-year-old sexual assault kit produces a lawful charge. A homicide file reopened after a witness finally talks produces a lawful charge. Anyone who tells you an old allegation on this list is too old to prosecute is wrong.
The list is short on purpose. Shoplifting, drug possession, a bar fight, a DUI, criminal damage and most theft cases fall under the ordinary windows above.
What stops the clock
Four rules stretch the window past the plain numbers. Each one catches people who thought they were safe.
Time outside Arizona does not count. The clock pauses for any period when you are absent from Arizona or have no reasonably ascertainable home address inside Arizona. Move to Nevada for three years after an incident, and the seven-year felony window still has seven years left when you come back. Leaving does not run out the clock. It freezes it.
Unknown identity pauses the clock on serious offenses. For the crimes on Arizona’s serious-offense list, which includes aggravated assault with a weapon or serious injury, armed robbery, kidnapping, first degree burglary and arson of an occupied structure, the clock does not run while the police do not know who did it. A case with no named suspect on those charges stays open until a name surfaces.
A dismissal buys the prosecutor six more months. When a complaint, information or indictment was filed inside the window and later dismissed for any reason, the prosecutor gets six months after the dismissal becomes final to file again, even if the original window has closed. A case the prosecutor declined to file at the first court appearance was never filed, so this rule does not touch it, and the original window keeps running.
A class 6 felony stays a felony for the deadline. Even when the prosecutor later designates the charge a misdemeanor, or the judge enters a misdemeanor judgment, the filing window was seven years.
DUI carries its own wrinkle. A misdemeanor DUI gets the one-year window, except when the DUI involved a collision that caused serious injury or death on a written accident report, where the DUI law stretches the window to two years. A moving violation that caused serious injury or death gets the same two years. Aggravated DUI is a felony and gets seven.
The Law Behind This
| Charge or relief | What the law says | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| First degree murder | A.R.S. § 13-1105 defines first degree murder, and Arizona’s filing-deadline law exempts every homicide from any time limit | A homicide charge has no deadline, and ten years of silence means nothing on this charge |
| Aggravated assault | A.R.S. § 13-1204 lists what turns an assault into a felony, including a weapon, a serious injury or a victim in a protected job | Seven years to file, and the clock pauses while the suspect’s identity is unknown on the weapon and serious-injury versions |
| Simple assault | A.R.S. § 13-1203 makes assault a class 1, 2 or 3 misdemeanor depending on the injury and the intent | One year to file, counted from the day the police learned of the incident |
| Misdemeanor DUI | A.R.S. § 28-1381 sets the base DUI offense and gives the prosecutor two years to file when the DUI involved a collision with serious injury or death on a written accident report | A DUI with no injury collision carries the ordinary one-year misdemeanor window |
| Aggravated DUI | A.R.S. § 28-1383 makes DUI a felony on a suspended license, a third DUI within 84 months, a passenger under 15 or a required interlock that is missing, among other triggers | Seven years to file, the same as any other felony |
| Class 6 undesignated felony | A.R.S. § 13-604 lets a judge leave a class 6 felony undesignated and designate it a misdemeanor later | The filing window stays at seven years no matter how the case is designated afterward |
What to do while the clock runs
Silence is not closure, so treat the waiting period as case time. Five moves matter.
Check whether anything was filed. A complaint filed without a summons reaching you turns into a warrant, and people learn about it at a traffic stop. Look yourself up through the Maricopa County Superior Court criminal department and the public case search linked from the Arizona Judicial Branch. Our page on finding your Arizona criminal case online walks through the lookups.
Keep your address current. A summons mailed to an old apartment becomes a failure to appear, and a failure to appear becomes a warrant.
Do not leave Arizona to wait it out. The clock pauses the day you go, so you lose years and gain nothing on the deadline.
Do not call the detective to clear it up. A detective who calls after weeks of silence is usually filling a gap in the report before sending it to the prosecutor. Read what to do when a detective calls before you pick up.
Preserve your own evidence now. Store video is overwritten in thirty days. Text threads get deleted. Witnesses move. The police collected their side on day one, so delay hurts the defense more than it hurts the prosecutor. Save phone records, screenshots, receipts and the names of anyone who was there.
How Future First works a prefile case
Prefile representation starts with the calendar. We pull the report date, read the police report for the charge class it supports, and set the deadline. Then we send a letter of representation so contact from the police routes through the office instead of your phone.
From there the work is monitoring and preparation. We check court records and charging status on a schedule, so a filing never surprises you. We gather your side of the evidence while it still exists. We prepare you for both paths, a charge that gets filed and a window that closes. On some cases, evidence we hand the prosecutor before the charging decision changes what gets filed. Prefile representation runs for a set term with a flat fee, and before the term ends we review what happened in your case to confirm whether anything was filed or recommended. The fee schedule is on our pricing page.
When charges do come, the same lawyer stays on the case. Future First takes cases to trial, retests blood on DUI cases through an independent lab, handles MVD hearings in-house, and sends recorded video updates after court dates so you never wonder what happened. Zachary Divelbiss founded the firm and Brielle Schumpe leads the DUI defense side. The firm holds 250+ five-star Google reviews. Our Phoenix criminal defense lawyers handle the charges that follow a prefile investigation, from misdemeanor assault to felony theft.
Our Results
The client faced a class 6 felony aggravated assault charge in Maricopa County Superior Court, filed well inside the seven-year window. The exposure was prison time, a permanent felony record with a violent-offense flag, and the loss of voting and firearm rights. We worked the case through the superior court process and held the prosecutor to the proof. The prosecutor was unable to proceed, and the judge dismissed the case in late 2024 with no conviction, no probation and no fines. Read the full result.
The client faced a twelve-count indictment in Maricopa County Superior Court, with two class 4 felony aggravated assault counts carrying a domestic violence label, one class 6 felony aggravated assault count, eight misdemeanor assault counts and one misdemeanor disorderly conduct count. The exposure ran to 3.75 years in prison on each class 4 count, mandatory domestic violence offender treatment and a lifetime federal firearm ban. We secured entry into the Maricopa County Attorney’s domestic violence diversion program, the client completed every condition, and the prosecutor moved to dismiss. The judge dismissed all twelve counts with no conviction, no prison, no probation and no fine. Read the full result.
The client faced a class 5 felony in Maricopa County Superior Court with a presumptive prison term of 1.5 years, a range up to 2.5 years and a permanent felony record. We first negotiated the charge down to an attempt, which dropped it one class to a class 6 felony, then pushed further and reduced it to a class 1 misdemeanor. The client received one year of supervised probation with no jail, no prison and no felony record. Read the full result. Every case turns on its own record, and past results do not predict a future one.
Call a prefile attorney before the clock matters
The best time to hire a lawyer on an uncharged case is the week the police first make contact, when the report is still being written and your evidence still exists. The second best time is today. Call Future First Criminal Law at 602-900-7625 and tell us the date of the incident, the agency involved and what the police have said so far. Phones are answered around the clock, and consultations are scheduled during business hours. Read more case victories first if you want to see how filed cases ended.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does Arizona have to file misdemeanor charges?
One year for most misdemeanors, counted from the day the police or the prosecutor learned of the offense. A petty offense, which is a violation punishable by a fine alone, gets six months. A misdemeanor DUI that involved a collision with serious injury or death stretches to two years.
How long does Arizona have to file felony charges?
Seven years for a class 2 through class 6 felony. The clock starts on the day the offense was learned of, or should have been learned of with reasonable care, and it pauses while you are outside Arizona. Homicide and a short list of other felonies have no deadline at all.
Does the clock start on the day of the incident?
Only when the police learned of the incident that day. The window runs from the day the police agency or the prosecutor’s office learned of the offense, or the day they should have learned of it, whichever comes first. A crime nobody reported for two years starts its clock when it surfaces.
Which crimes have no filing deadline in Arizona?
Any homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide that ends in a death, class 2 felony sex offenses, class 2 felony sexual exploitation of a child, violent sexual assault, child sex trafficking, terrorism, misuse of public money and felony falsification of public records. An attempt to commit any crime on that list has no deadline either. The prosecutor files these at any time.
Does leaving Arizona pause the filing deadline?
Yes. The clock stops for any period when you are outside Arizona or have no reasonably ascertainable home address inside Arizona. Three years in another state leaves the full window waiting for you when you return.
Does a dismissed case restart the deadline?
It adds six months. When a case was filed inside the window and later dismissed for any reason, the prosecutor has six months after the dismissal becomes final to refile, even when the original window has already closed. A case that was never filed gets no extension from this rule.
How long does Arizona have to file DUI charges?
One year on a standard misdemeanor DUI with no injury collision. Two years when the DUI involved a collision that caused serious injury or death on a written accident report. Seven years on an aggravated DUI, which is a felony.
How do I find out whether charges were filed?
Search your name on the Maricopa County Superior Court docket and on the public case search linked from the Arizona Judicial Branch site, then check the justice court or city court where the incident happened. A filed complaint with no summons delivered to you turns into a warrant, so search before a traffic stop does it for you. A lawyer runs these checks on a schedule during prefile representation.
What happens when the deadline passes with no charges?
The prosecutor loses the power to file that charge, and a filing after the deadline gets dismissed on a motion from your lawyer. Confirm the math first, since the start date, the charge class, time outside Arizona and the unknown-identity rule each move the end date. Clearing the arrest record afterward is a separate process handled at azrecordremoval.com.
Is the filing deadline the same as the speedy trial deadline?
No. The filing deadline limits how long the prosecutor has to start a case. The speedy trial rules begin after the case is filed and limit how long the prosecutor has to bring you to trial, measured in days and months rather than years.