Giving Notice of Court Proceedings in Arizona

Arizona law about giving notice in probate, guardianship and conservatorship proceedings has recently changed. What might have been a well-meaning piece of legislation has significantly increased the cost of court proceedings. And there’s very little reason to believe that anyone is more likely to know about court hearings as a result. Giving notice is a complicated set of requirements — in Arizona and elsewhere. Some people are directly involved in probates, trust administrations, guardianships and conservatorships. Think the personal representative, or trustee. Same for the person subject to a guardianship or conservatorship. Others are more tangentially involved. Perhaps there is a trust beneficiary, or an heir in a probate. Maybe an heir has even been disinherited. Next of kin might be on the notice list for a guardianship or conservatorship. Under the new rules, most of those people have to be given notice by registered or certified mail (though a growing subset have to be personally served). Apparently, the Arizona legislature doesn’t really know what registered or certified mail even means. We talk about giving notice and how the new rules complicate court proceedings in this week’s Elder Law Issues podcast. It’s a little bit of inside baseball, if you will — but it’s a good illustration of how the sausage gets made (to mix our metaphors).