Being honest, Maya is a silly girl, she might make promises she can't keep, she'd be hard pressed to manage Wright and Co Law offices AND work on her Kurain family considering the distance between them. Is it so hard to consider she just up and headed off to Kurain Village? Or at least was doing some training there while Nick lost his badge?

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Sure she's probably living back in Kurain. Sure she might have been doing some Kurain Master business when Phoenix took the Zak case and he didn't want to make her rush back overnight. But abandon him when he's on trial for murder? No way.

We can't possibly assume that nothing else has happened to her, there are a billion and one possibilities and responsibilities that could keep her away. For all we know someone could have requested her services across the country and she might not have been able to get to him in time. In the AA universe the trials can be over in a matter of days she might not have time!

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But see, they don't tell us, so there's no evidence. We're reduced to making elaborate vaguely possible theories to explain her absence, with no support in the canon. Actual fact we're given is 'Maya does not exist, in terms of writing, in this game except for an easter egg scene'. And that in itself is a plothole, since no explanation is ever given.

And it's several days between Phoenix's arrest and trial.

Urk...for the first time I'm actually running out of ammo here. What I'm trying to say is that use of the term "plothole" is a bit of a strong term to use. You say we can only elaborate and thats true, I agree based on the relationship she had with Nick and the amount they've been through together I'm surprised that she didn't show up still we can't explain, maybe something happened between Nick and her that distanced them maybe it didn't either way unless somehow somewhere in between T+T and AJ. Unless somehow you can get a letter saying "I'm coming down Nick! I can't believe you got yourself in trouble again!" it's not a plothole in my opinion.

Oh! I had an idea. Maybe she WAS there for his trial but consider this, would she really be able to contact Nick? After all in past experiences only people in the law profession, witnesses, 'legal' aides are allowed in the witness lobby. Maya isn't a legal aide anymore she wouldn't be allowed in BUT she might have been in the crowd watching! Furthermore she may even have met up with him after the trial once he left the witness lounge!

Yay for explanations.

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Taking the position of "she wasn't mentioned therefore she ceases to exist" is kind of a slippery slope. The writers just can't account for the location of every character at every given moment. When Phoenix was on trial for murder in 3-1 and 1-2, no one came to visit him then either, except those directly involved in the case. Do we assume then that there is no one in the world who cares about Phoenix? No parents, no college friends, not even Larry? Was there no one who heard the news on TV and decided to watch the case, but couldn't necessarily make the trip out? The games just don't bother to deal with characters who have no impact on the immediate case; it's always been that way.

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Its a Nintendo game. not Lord of the rings.

I don't understand this analogy

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Oh nooo I was hoping I wouldn't have to keep arguing this one.

But she didn't exist in the writers' minds when they were writing the case. In 3-1 and 1-2 we do assume Phoenix is all alone, at least in terms of anyone who could really help him. (Maybe Larry dropped by, to the audience, but he probably wasn't very helpful and could not have helped solve the case.) We don't consider his parents, because they are never shown in the plots, apart from Phoenix saying he was an only child - hence a lot of fans seem to think that his parents are distant/have bad relationship/he was adopted etc. The absence of Larry or Phoenix's parents is totally reasonable because there is never shown to be any close relationship between Phoenix and his parents, and Larry is always more trouble than help and couldn't help solve the case therefore his presence would be largely irrelevant.

But everything we ever see of Maya (or even Edgeworth, but there's plenty of precedent in the games that he's 'overseas') shows that she's both dedicated to Phoenix (as in, it would be out of character not to show up and support him) and able to help him solve cases (ie. assist him in this endeavour of being found not guilty.) So we have to make up complex and unlikely theories as to how this out of character event of her not appearing could be possible. See, we have to make up elaborate theories to compensate for a usual in-character occurrence that we would otherwise expect.