The following are basic steps for a Sonoran judgment to be enforced in the Superior Court of the State of Arizona. First, the Sonoran sentencia should be authenticated or certified by evidence sufficient to support a finding that the matter in question or the judgment is what it in fact purports to be. In general, this suggests that a Sonoran official authorized in Mexico must certify the genuineness of the sentencia and execute or at least verify a copy of the judgment. It must then be presented to a diplomatic official of the U.S. to authenticate the certification by the Mexican official. Next, the judgment must be translated to English.
Translation creates an opportunity for dispute over the correctness of the translation.
The judgment creditor must then offer proof that the Sonoran court had jurisdiction over the judgment debtor and the subject matter of the claim. Although there are no specific rules on this point, it is highly likely that the Mexican creditor would have to show that enforcement of the Mexican judgment in the United States would not be violative of the public policy or state law of Arizona and that substantive law as well as the remedy set forth in the judgment are similar to judgments originating from Arizona law. An enforcement proceeding could be administered in state court as a motion for summary judgment. The court could decide all matters by affidavits. But affidavits are easy to challenge.