Tools · Small Claims
Arkansas Small Claims Checker (2026)
Enter your claim amount to see whether it fits under the Arkansas small claims limit ($5,000), with the filing fee and whether a lawyer is allowed at the hearing.
Arkansas small claims checker
The dollar amount you would ask the court for: the deposit, the unpaid bill, the repair cost. Interest and court costs usually sit on top of the limit, not inside it.
Enter your claim amount above to see it compared against the Arkansas figures.
Where and how to file is procedure this page does not walk through; the official self-help resource is Legal Aid of Arkansas (small claims self-help). If your claim is a security deposit a landlord kept, the security deposit calculator shows the cap and the return deadline that apply to it.
- Your claim amount
- Not entered
- Arkansas small claims limit
- $5,000
- Filing fee
- ~$30–$65
- Lawyers at the hearing
- Not allowed at the hearing
Plain-language summary, not legal advice.
Informational only, not legal advice, and not a prediction that any claim would succeed. Limits change and some states carve out claim types this summary cannot weigh. See the full rule and the citations on the Arkansas small claims reference, cited to Ark. Code §16-17-704 (limit); §16-17-606 (no attorneys).
How the Arkansas small claims limit works
Arkansas caps small claims at $5,000, and it is one of the few states that keeps lawyers out entirely. The small-claims division sits inside each district court and handles contract disputes, money owed, and damage to or recovery of personal property up to $5,000. The no-lawyer rule is real: under Ark. Code §16-17-606, no attorney may take part in any stage of a small-claims case, and if one does, the case is bumped to the regular district court docket. A business can still use small claims, but it has to send a non-attorney officer or employee. Two state .gov pages, the Attorney General's consumer guide and the Arkansas Judiciary's district-court page, both confirm the $5,000 figure. We flagged this page as Draft because we could not open an official code portal to read the exact statute text, and the common citation for the limit is §16-17-704 rather than the section some references list.
This checker compares your number to the Arkansas ceiling; it is informational only and not legal advice, and it says nothing about whether a claim would succeed. For where to file and what the hearing looks like, use the official self-help resource linked in the result. The full rule and the citations are on the Arkansas small claims reference.
Small claims checkers for other states
Same tool, each with its own ceiling and fee.