This week the Arizona Legislature amended A.R.S. § 44-1201(B) regarding interest rates for Arizona judgments. Before the amendmentment, the statute assigned an interest rate of 10% per year for Arizona judgments. The statute now reads:
Unless specifically provided for in statute or a different rate is contracted for in writing, interest on any judgment shall be at the lesser of ten per cent per annum or at a rate per annum that is equal to one percent plus the prime rate as published by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Statistical Release H.15 or any publication that may supersede it on the date that the judgment is entered. The judgment shall state the applicable interest rate and it shall not change after it is entered.
In other words, unless the interest rate of a judgment is previously agreed to in a contract, attorneys will now need to (1) calculate what the judgment will come out to at an interest rate of 10% per year, (2) calculate what the judgment will come out to at an interest rate of 1% plus the rate published in the Statistical Release H.15, and (3) take the lower of the two. It will also be very important for the attorney to make sure that the correct interest rate is stated in the judgment.
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