Qualifications of Judges of State Appellate Courts and General Trial Courts

For court of appeals, five years.

No local residency requirement stated for Supreme Court. Local residency of 3 years required for Court of Appeals.

Supreme Court- ten years state bar, Court of Appeals – five years state bar.

Admitted to the practice of law in Arizona for five years.

Court of Appeals minimum age is 30.

The candidate must be a resident of the district at the time of the original appointment.

Circuit court judge must reside within the territorial jurisdiction of the court.

In the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, five years service as a general jurisdiction judge may be substituted.

Relevant legal experience, such as being a member of a law faculty or sitting as a judge, may qualify under the 10 year requirement.

Must reside within the district.

At the appellate level must have been a state voter for nine years. At the general trial court level must have been a state voter for three years and resident of the circuit for 1 year.

Minimum of two years state bar member and at least 15 years of legal practice.

Restricted Superior court judgeships require residence within the particular county of assignment at time of appointment and reappointment.

Resident judges of the Superior Court are required to have local residency, but special judges are not.

District and associate judges must be state residents for six months if elected, and associate judges must be county residents.

District Court: judges must be a state bar member for four years or a judge of court record. Associate judges must be a state bar member for two years or a judge of a court of record.

Circuit judges must be county electors and residents of the circuit.

Supreme Court: One justice from each of three divisions and two seats at large; no more than two may be from any grand division. Court of Appeals and Court of Criminal Appeals: Must reside in the grand division served.

35 for Supreme Court, 30 for Court of Appeals & Court of Criminal Appeals.

Ten years practicing law or a lawyer and judge of a court of record at least 10 years.

District Court: judges must have been a practicing lawyer or a judge of a court in this state, or both combined, for four years.

Superior Court: Judge must also be an active member of the unified District of Columbia bar and have been engaged, during the five years immediately preceding the judicial nomination, in the active practice of law as an attorney in the District, been on the faculty of a law school in the District, or been employed by either the by the United States or District of Columbia government.