Tools · Small Claims
Florida Small Claims Checker (2026)
Enter your claim amount to see whether it fits under the Florida small claims limit ($8,000), with the filing fee and whether a lawyer is allowed at the hearing.
Florida 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.
The Florida Supreme Court amended the Small Claims Rules effective January 1, 2026 (opinion SC2024-1765), but the $8,000 ceiling did NOT change; the amendment only added an exception for foreclosure actions. Anyone telling you the limit moved in 2026 is mistaken.
Enter your claim amount above to see it compared against the Florida figures.
Where and how to file is procedure this page does not walk through; the official self-help resource is Florida Courts 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
- Florida small claims limit
- $8,000
- Filing fee
- ~$55–$300
- Lawyers at the hearing
- Allowed
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 Florida small claims reference, cited to Fla. Sm. Cl. R. 7.010(b).
How the Florida small claims limit works
Florida's small-claims ceiling is $8,000, "exclusive of costs, interest, and attorneys' fees." In practice, the $8,000 is measured on the underlying claim, and add-ons can push the final judgment higher. The figure lives in the Small Claims Rules (Rule 7.010(b)), not a statute section, which is why it is easy to misquote. Watch the timing: the Florida Supreme Court amended those rules effective January 1, 2026, and some sites treated that as a limit increase. It wasn't. The $8,000 held; the change only carved out foreclosure actions. Lawyers are permitted, and the filing fee is tiered by claim size, from about $55 for the smallest claims up to roughly $300 at the $8,000 ceiling. The $8,000 figure has applied since January 1, 2020 (up from $5,000).
This checker compares your number to the Florida 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 Florida small claims reference.
Small claims checkers for other states
Same tool, each with its own ceiling and fee.