The Arizona military affidavit

How Arizona handles it

Arizona publishes no statewide military affidavit. The Supreme Court's Self-Service Center civil forms run to a cover sheet, complaint, summons, arbitration certificate, jury demands, answer, joint report and scheduling order, with no default form in the set, and the page itself says the statewide forms "are generic and may be accepted by courts statewide" while "each court might have their own preferred forms." So the document you sign comes from the court you filed in. In Maricopa County, the Justice Courts publish it.

The military question appears twice, once at each step of Justice Court Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 140. Step one is the Application for Entry of Default (form CV 8150-120.2, revised 11/21/25), which prints "The Defendant [ ] is [ ] is not on active duty in the United States Military." Step two is the Request and Affidavit for Entry of Default Judgment (form CV 8150-167.2, revised 6/27/24), which prints the identical sentence. Both boxes are binary. Neither form offers an "unable to determine" option or a line for supporting facts.

The gap between the two steps is ten judicial days. The court's instruction sheet says the entry of default becomes effective ten judicial days after the application is filed if nothing is filed in response, and warns that this "is not the same thing as having a default judgment." A party in default loses the right to litigate the merits but "may still participate in any proceedings concerning how much, if any, money should be awarded."

What must travel with the judgment request, per the instructions and Rule 140(e) and (g): a proposed judgment form, documents substantiating the amount claimed (the instructions name a promissory note, loan agreement, contract, repair estimates and receipts), a statement of costs, service of all of it on every party, and stamped envelopes addressed to each party handed to the court.

Small claims runs a parallel set with its own numbers. The Small Claims Application for Entry of Default (SC 8150-326.2, revised 11/21/25) carries the same military checkbox and the same ten-day wait, stated as "10 court business days" rather than judicial days, and its service options are process server or constable, alternative service, or registered or certified mail. The response deadline for the underlying claim comes from ARSCP Rule 7 rather than JCRCP Rule 114.

What trips filers up here

• The instruction sheet devotes exactly two lines to the subject, under the heading Military Status: "To verify military status, check the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act website. https://scra.dmdc.osd.mil/scra/#/single-record." Nothing on the form asks when you ran the search or whether you attached the report.
• Two forms, two revision dates, one identical sentence. The Application was refreshed 11/21/25 and the Request and Affidavit on 6/27/24, so the same defendant gets checked twice against the same box. Run the search again before step two rather than copying the step-one answer forward.
• Only the second signature carries a perjury penalty. If the only thing you filed is the step-one Application, you have told the court the defendant is not serving without swearing to it, which is not what 50 U.S.C. § 3931(b)(1) contemplates.
• Service by publication changes the route entirely. The instructions say that when the other side was served by publication, the plaintiff must file a motion and affidavit for approval and a default hearing will be held, citing ARCP 4.1(l) and JCRCP 140(j).

Signing it: declaration, no notary

The Request and Affidavit closes "I state under penalty of perjury that the forgoing is true and correct" above a signature line with role checkboxes for Plaintiff, Counterclaimant, 3rd Party Plaintiff or Attorney. There is no notary block. The step-one Application for Entry of Default has no perjury clause at all, only a signature.

No notary is needed. The signature block is an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury, which is what 50 U.S.C. § 3931(b)(4) expressly allows. Signing it knowing the military statement is false is still a federal crime, and a state perjury exposure on top.

Getting the military-status answer right

The affidavit is only as good as the search behind it. The Defense Manpower Data Center runs the free lookup that courts and creditors rely on, and since 2026 it requires a free account even for a single record. Our guide to the DMDC SCRA website covers the search itself, what a "no information found" result does and does not prove, and the batch route for high-volume filers. The federal rules behind this form, including what happens when you genuinely cannot determine status, sit on the hub page.

If one was filed against you

A false affidavit is not a technicality. In May 2026 the Justice Department settled with a Florida property manager that swore a Navy sailor was not on active duty, took a default eviction judgment, and left him with an eviction on his record that a dozen landlords then refused to rent around: $60,000 to one servicemember plus a civil penalty . If a default judgment was entered against you while you were serving, it can be reopened; the default-judgment shield walks the deadlines.

Serving in Arizona and looking for what the state adds to your own protections rather than court procedure? That is a different page: Arizona SCRA benefits.