Category
Court Costs
Before you file, it helps to know what filing actually costs. These tools break down the individual fees that add up to a small claims lawsuit — the court's filing fee, and eventually the cost of serving the other party — each cited to a real court fee schedule, by state.
Nothing here is legal advice, and none of it predicts how your case will turn out. It's the arithmetic you'd otherwise have to dig out of a scanned PDF yourself, done once and kept current.
See exactly what it costs to file a small claims case, by state — cited to your court's own fee schedule.
Open tool →Court Filing Fees by StateSmall claims, limited civil and general civil filing fees in every state and DC, cited to each judiciary's own fee schedule and re-checked twice a year.
Open tool →Service of Process Cost CalculatorSee what it costs to serve a defendant, by state and by method — sheriff, court-arranged mail, or certified mail — cited to each state's own fee schedule.
Open tool →Total Cost to Sue CalculatorThe full out-of-pocket cost to sue in small claims court — filing fee plus service of process, added together and cited to each court's own fee schedule.
Open tool →Post-Judgment Interest Rate by StateThe post-judgment interest rate in every state, DC and federal court, how each is set, and the statute behind it. Rebuilt from the publishers monthly.
Open tool →Small Claims Judgment Interest CalculatorSee how much interest has accrued on an unpaid small claims judgment, using each state's statutory postjudgment interest rate.
Open tool →Small Claims Limit CheckerSee whether your claim qualifies for small claims court and what the dollar limit is, by state and by plaintiff type — individual or business.
Open tool →Wage Garnishment CalculatorSee how much of a paycheck a small claims judgment creditor can actually garnish, by state — cited to each state's own wage-garnishment statute.
Open tool →Fee Waiver Eligibility CheckerSee whether you qualify to have your small claims filing fee waived for financial hardship, by state — cited to each court's own fee-waiver rule.
Open tool →Judgment Renewal CalculatorSee when your small claims judgment expires and what it costs to renew it, by state — cited to each state's own judgment-renewal statute.
Open tool →Judgment Collection Cost CalculatorSee what it costs to have a bank levy served to collect an unpaid small claims judgment, by state — cited to each state's own fee schedule and sheriff/marshal fee statute.
Open tool →Small Claims Appeal Cost CalculatorSee what it costs to appeal a small claims judgment, by state — cited to each state's own appeal filing fee statute or court fee schedule.
Open tool →Witness Fee & Subpoena Cost CalculatorSee what it costs to subpoena a witness to a small claims trial — statutory witness fee plus mileage, by state — cited to each state's own witness-fee statute.
Open tool →Small Claims Statute of Limitations CheckerSee how much time is left to file a small claims case, by state and claim type — cited to each state's own statute of limitations.
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