Courts · Small Claims
Small Claims Court Limits by State
The most-searched fact — the most you can sue for in small claims — for every state, plus the filing-fee range and whether a lawyer is allowed. Cited to the statute or court rule.
How high is the limit where you live?
Colored by the state's small-claims dollar ceiling. Tap a state for the fee, the lawyer rule, and the exact citation.
Read this first — the limit isn't always one number
For most states the answer is a single figure: Texas $20,000, Georgia $15,000, California $12,500 (but only $6,250 for a business), Ohio $6,000. Two states break the pattern, and flattening them would mislead you. New York is tiered by court: $10,000 in New York City and the city courts, $5,000 in the Nassau and Suffolk district courts, and $3,000 in town and village courts — so the widely-repeated "$5,000 statewide" is simply wrong. North Carolina sets a $10,000 ceiling that each county may lower (often to $5,000), so the honest answer there is "up to $10,000, check your county."
Two more things vary more than people expect. The filing fee is a range almost everywhere — set per county or per claim size — not a single number; the only genuinely uniform fees are North Carolina's $96 and New Jersey's $35. And lawyers are barred at the hearing in five states (California, Michigan, Virginia, Washington, and Arizona), where small claims is meant to be argued by the parties themselves.
Pick your state
Limit, filing-fee range, and whether lawyers are allowed on each card.
What these pages are — and aren't
Each state page is a reference for the dollar limit, the fee, and the lawyer rule — the facts you need before deciding whether small claims is the right venue. They are deliberately not a "how to file" walkthrough or a "will I win" predictor: filing procedure is county-specific and giving case-outcome advice crosses into legal advice. For forms and procedure, each page links to the state's official court self-help resource. This is legal information, not legal advice.