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(A) Nature of Proceedings. In any action pending in superior court, except an action pending in the Arizona Tax Court, each side is entitled as a matter of right to a change of one judge and of one court commissioner. Each action, whether single or consolidated, shall be treated as having only two sides. Whenever two or more parties on a side have adverse or hostile interests, the presiding judge or that judge’s designee may allow additional changes of judge as a matter of right but each side shall have the right to the same number of such changes. A party wishing to exercise that party’s right to change of judge shall file a “Notice of Change of Judge.” The notice may be signed by an attorney; it shall state the name of the judge to be changed; and it shall neither specify grounds nor be accompanied by an affidavit, such as required by subsection (f)(2) of this rule, but it shall contain a certification by the party filing the notice or by the attorney that (i) the notice is timely, (ii) the party has not waived the right under subsection (f)(1)(D) of the rule, and (iii) the party has not previously been granted a change of judge as a matter of right in the case. A judge may honor an informal request for change of judge. When a judge does so, the judge shall enter upon the record the date of the request and the name of the party requesting change of judge. Such action shall constitute an exercise of the requesting party’s right to change of judge.

(B) Filing and Service. The notice shall be filed and copies served on the parties, the presiding judge, the noticed judge and the court administrator, if any, in accordance with Rule 5, Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure.

(C) Time. Failure to file a timely notice precludes change of judge as a matter of right. A notice is timely if filed sixty (60) or more days before the date set for trial. Whenever an assignment is made which identifies the judge for the first time or which changes the judge within sixty (60) days of the date set for trial, a notice shall be timely filed as to the newly assigned judge if filed within ten (10) days after such new assignment. A notice of change of judge is ineffective if filed within three (3) days of a scheduled proceeding unless the parties have received less than five (5) days’ notice of that proceeding or the assignment of the judge. The filing of such an ineffective notice neither requires a change of judge nor precludes the party who filed it from subsequently filing a notice of change of judge that otherwise satisfies the requirements of this rule.

(D) Waiver. After a judge is assigned to preside at trial or is otherwise permanently assigned to the action, a party waives the right to change of that judge as a matter of right when:

Such waiver is to apply only to such assigned judge.