If the court grants your petition to seal criminal case records under ARS § 13-911, with exception, you may be able state on employment, housing, and financial aid or loan applications that you have never been arrested for, charged with or convicted of the crime that is the subject of the arrest or conviction.

Your ability to deny an arrest or conviction applies only on or after the date your petition is granted.

However, keep in mind that there are exceptions. In some situations, you cannot deny an arrest or conviction even if your petition to seal criminal case records is granted.

If the court grants your petition, there are situations in which you cannot deny that the arrest or conviction occurred. Ensure that you follow and understand all exceptions. (See ARS § 13-911(I)(5)).

• Your sealed records involve an offense listed in Title 13, Chapter 34.


• You are submitting an application that requires a fingerprint clearance card (ARS §§ Title 41, Chapter 12, Article 3.1, “Fingerprinting Division”).


• You are applying for a job involving operation of a motor vehicle, boat or airplane if your sealed records involved operating a motor vehicle, motorized watercraft or airplane while intoxicated or theft of means of transportation.


• You are applying for a job that requires entering into and performing services inside a residential structure if your sealed records involved burglary or theft from a residential or nonresidential structure.


• You are applying for a job supervising, educating or administering care to a minor and your sealed records involved child abuse or aggravated assault.

• You are applying for a job involving supervising or administering care to a vulnerable adult or person 65 years of age or older and your sealed records involved vulnerable adult abuse.


• You are applying for a job involving accounting, overseeing, transporting, handling or managing another person’s money or financial assets and your sealed records involved theft, theft of means of transportation, forgery, identity theft or fraud.


• You are applying for a position with a law enforcement agency, prosecutor’s office, court, probation department, child welfare agency, Department of Child Safety, or correctional facility.


• You are undergoing a background check to place with you a child who is in the Department of Child Safety’s custody.


• Disclosure is required by state or federal law.


• Disclosure is required to comply with program integrity provisions of Medicare, Medicaid or other federal health care program.

Sealing your records does not affect any of the following:

• Your right to appeal the conviction or sentence, or rely on it in bar of any subsequent proceeding for the same offense.


• The right of a law enforcement agency to maintain an arrest and conviction record and communicate information to prosecuting agencies, courts, probation departments, and other law enforcement agencies for purposes listed in ARS § 13-911(J).
  
  NOTE: Records from the Department of Public Safety, Central State Repository, are not public records and will not be altered by DPS but will be marked as sealed.

• The Department of Public Safety or the Board of Fingerprinting from considering a sealed conviction when evaluating an application for a fingerprint clearance card. (ARS §§ 41-1758.03 or 41-1758.07)


• Your right to possess a firearm if the conviction prohibits you from possessing a firearm under Arizona or other state and federal laws. (28 CFR § 25.9)
   
• A court from issuing a lifetime injunction pursuant to ARS § 13-719 or the validity of a lifetime injunction that was issued pursuant ARS § 13-719.

ARS § 13-911(I)(6) states that as prescribed by ARS § 12-558.03, an employer is not liable for hiring or contracting with a person who has had their criminal case records sealed.