Arizona Attorney General Opinions

Attorney General Opinions (1892 to current) are issued when requested by either house of the State Legislature, any public officer of the State, or a county attorney, on a question of law relating to their office. The Attorney General's office does not issue opinions for private citizens, nor does it offer legal advice to private citizens. The Office of the Attorney General was abolished between 1869-1884, with a brief period of resurrection in 1872.

The first two digits of each opinion number indicate the year the opinion was issued. An opinion number beginning with I99 indicates the opinion was issued in 1999 and the next three digits indicate the order in which the opinion was issued. For example, I99-003 is the third opinion issued in 1999. The request number begins with the letter R and similarly refers to the year the opinion was requested and order it was received. For example,  R98-025 was requested in 1998 and was the 25th request received by the Attorney General's office that year.

Opinions and letters before 1937 are identified by a date (e.g. 1892-JUL-31) rather than by opinion number. Certain opinions, such as opinions ending with an "L" (e.g. 63-1-L) were written as "letter" opinions. Opinions ending with "ESC" (e.g. 53-1-ESC) were written to the Employment Security Commission. Opinions ending with "C" are concurring opinions (e.g. 71-6-C).

Occasionally opinions were written using Rev. Code Ariz. § 1566 (1928), which allowed the Attorney General to designate an attorney to work for the Highway Commission.

Legal custody of pre-1937 Attorney General Opinions resides with the State Archives of the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records. Legal custody of Attorney General Opinions from 1937 to the present resides with the Attorney General's office. Opinions and letters from 1937 - 1998 were microfilmed in the condition they were received from the Attorney General's Office and saved in PDF format by the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records. Attorney General Opinions from 1999 to present were downloaded from the Attorney General's office website. Attorney General's opinion from 2005 to present may also be found on the Attorney General's website. Opinions found prior to 2005 may be found in this collection.

Opinions of the Attorney General are advisory only.