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A.R.S. § 39-121.02

Action on denial of access; costs and attorney fees; damages

Applied in 36 court decisions — leading case Carlson v. Pima County (1984)

Most recently applied in L.H./d.L. v. Hon culbertson/ballestero (May 2024)

How often courts cite this section

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citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

A. Any person who has requested to examine or copy public records pursuant to this article and who has been denied access to or the right to copy such records may appeal the denial through a special action in the superior court pursuant to the rules of procedure for special actions against the officer or public body. If a victim is denied access to a public record pursuant to this article in the course of a criminal case in superior court, the victim may appeal the denial through a special action within the criminal case.

B. The court may award attorney fees and other legal costs that are reasonably incurred in any action under this article if the person seeking public records has substantially prevailed. This subsection does not limit the rights of any party to recover attorney fees, expenses and double damages pursuant to section 12-349.

C. Any person who is wrongfully denied access to public records pursuant to this article has a cause of action against the officer or public body for any damages resulting from the denial.

Official source: Arizona State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Arizona statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.