What Is an Injunction Against Harassment in Arizona?

An injunction against harassment in Arizona is a civil court order under ARS 12-1809 that tells a non-family member to stop contacting you, stay away from your home, workplace, or school, and cease specified behavior for one year.¹ You can file in any superior court, justice court, or municipal court in the state, there is no filing fee, and you don’t need an attorney. A judge can grant the order based on your written petition alone if there’s reasonable evidence that the respondent harassed you during the past year.

What Counts as Harassment

Arizona defines harassment as a series of acts directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to be seriously alarmed, annoyed, or harassed, where the conduct actually does alarm, annoy, or harass the target and serves no legitimate purpose.¹

Three parts, all required. A neighbor who leaves repeated hostile notes on your door meets the standard if a reasonable person would be seriously alarmed and the neighbor has no legitimate reason for the contact. A debt collector calling to collect a valid debt probably doesn’t, because the contact serves a legitimate purpose.

The statute requires a series of acts, not one incident. Courts look for a course of conduct: repeated unwanted calls, texts, social media messages, showing up at your home or workplace, following you, or leaving threatening notes. Digital conduct counts, and screenshots of harassing messages from any platform can satisfy the requirement. The one exception is a single act of sexual violence, which does not require a pattern.

Injunction Against Harassment or Order of Protection?

Arizona has two protective orders, and filing the wrong one sends you back to the start. An Order of Protection is for people with a domestic relationship: current or former spouses, people who have lived together, co-parents, blood relatives, or in-laws. An Injunction Against Harassment covers everyone else — neighbors, coworkers, acquaintances, strangers, and people you may be dating but have never lived with.²

If you share a qualifying domestic relationship with the person harassing you, ask the clerk’s office about an Order of Protection instead. Only one respondent can be named per injunction, so if more than one person is harassing you, you’ll need separate petitions.¹

How to File

Any superior, justice, or municipal court in Arizona can accept the petition. Where you or the respondent live doesn’t restrict your choice. There is no filing fee.¹

The petition must be in writing and verified under oath. It needs:

Your name. Your address and contact details go to the court in a separate confidential document so the respondent doesn’t see them.
The respondent’s name and address, if you know it.
A specific account of the harassment with dates, locations, and what happened. Vague descriptions fail. Write something closer to “On March 3, the respondent left a threatening note on my car at my workplace; on March 7, the respondent called my phone 14 times between 10 p.m. and midnight.”
Any prior or pending court proceedings about the same conduct.
The specific relief you want: no contact by phone, text, email, or social media; staying away from your home, workplace, or school; and anything else you need for your safety.

Judges can only grant what you ask for, so request everything you need upfront. If the real problem is the respondent showing up at your job but you only ask the court to stop calls, you won’t get the workplace protection.

If someone is temporarily or permanently unable to file for themselves, a third party can petition on their behalf, and the judge decides whether that person is appropriate.

After You File

The judge reviews your petition and any evidence you attach, including evidence of electronic harassment. If the judge finds reasonable evidence of harassment within the past year, the injunction issues without a hearing and without notifying the respondent first.¹ If the judge denies the petition, the court may schedule a hearing within ten days with notice to the respondent. A denial doesn’t bar you from filing again with stronger evidence.

What the Order Can Do

Once granted, the court can order any combination of three things: prohibit further harassment, bar the respondent from contacting you or coming near places you designate (home, workplace, school, and so on), and impose any other relief the judge finds necessary. The order can also protect other people you name specifically.¹

Evidence That Gets Petitions Granted

Judges rely on tangible proof. Most denials come down to vague descriptions, missing dates, or conduct that doesn’t add up to a pattern. The stronger your documentation, the stronger your petition.

Communication records: call logs, texts, emails, voicemails, social media messages, and letters. Screenshots should include timestamps and the sender’s identifying information.
Photos and video: images of the respondent at your home or workplace with no reason to be there, property damage, or security footage.
Police reports from any incidents you reported, plus any 911 recordings or body camera footage available by records request.
Witness statements from friends, family, coworkers, or neighbors who saw the conduct.
Medical or counseling records if the harassment caused you to seek treatment.

Organize everything chronologically. A judge reviewing a stack of petitions should be able to see the escalating pattern at a glance.

Serving the Respondent

The injunction does not take effect until the respondent is personally served with the order and the petition. You can’t serve the papers yourself. Service is done by law enforcement or a registered process server.³

Which agency serves depends on the issuing court: a city police department for municipal court injunctions, the constable for justice court injunctions, and the county sheriff for superior court injunctions. If the respondent can’t be found in the issuing court’s jurisdiction, the corresponding agency where the respondent can be found may serve the papers.¹

Law enforcement and constables can’t require you to pay service fees upfront, though the serving agency may bill you after the fact unless the court waives or defers the fees. Fee waivers are always available for petitions based on sexual violence, and the court must tell you at filing whether you qualify for a waiver or deferral based on your finances. A private process server charges you directly.

If the respondent is dodging service, law enforcement can keep trying. The injunction remains valid for one year from the date it was issued, and if it isn’t served within that year it expires and you’d need to file a new petition.

How Long It Lasts

The injunction is effective the moment the respondent is served and expires exactly one year after service.¹ If the court modifies the order after a hearing, the modified version still expires one year from the original service date, not from the modification.

There’s no renewal or extension process. When the year ends, the injunction simply expires. If the harassment continues or resumes, you can file a new petition with fresh evidence. The prior injunction and any documented violations become part of the record you can cite in the new filing.

The Respondent’s Hearing

Because the injunction issues without the respondent’s input, the respondent is entitled to request one hearing at any point while the order is in effect. The request must be in writing, and no fee is charged. The court must schedule the hearing within ten days of the request unless compelling reasons justify a delay.¹

Both sides can present evidence, call witnesses, and testify. The judge may ask questions to assess credibility. Either side can bring an attorney but isn’t required to. The burden is on you to show that the harassment occurred. The reasonable-evidence standard is lower than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard used in criminal cases, but the judge still needs a factual basis for the order.

After the hearing, the judge can keep the injunction in place, modify its terms, or quash it entirely. Treat the hearing as seriously as the original filing: bring your documentation, have witnesses available if possible, and be ready to walk through the timeline.

What Happens if the Respondent Violates the Order

Once served, the respondent has to follow every restriction. Any violation — a call, a text, showing up at a prohibited location — is a crime. Call law enforcement when it happens. Officers can verify the order through a statewide database and arrest the respondent on the spot.

Violating a court-ordered injunction falls under Arizona’s statute on interfering with judicial proceedings, a class 1 misdemeanor, the most serious misdemeanor level in the state.⁴ A conviction carries up to six months in jail⁵ and a fine of up to $2,500,⁶ and the court can impose probation.

Behavior that escalates to threats or physical harm can bring separate stalking, threatening, or assault charges on top of the violation itself. Keep certified copies of the injunction with you at home, in your car, and at work. Officers can look up the order electronically, but a physical copy speeds up the response.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 12 Section 12-1809 – Injunction Against Harassment; Petition; Venue; Fees; Notices; Enforcement; Definition
2
City of Maricopa. Orders of Protection and Injunction Against Harassment
3
Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County. How to Get an Injunction Against Harassment
4
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 13 Section 13-2810 – Interfering with Judicial Proceedings; Classification
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 13 Section 13-707 – Misdemeanor Sentencing
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 13 Section 13-802 – Fines for Misdemeanors