Tools · Small Claims
Georgia Small Claims Checker (2026)
Enter your claim amount to see whether it fits under the Georgia small claims limit ($15,000), with the filing fee and whether a lawyer is allowed at the hearing.
Georgia 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 Georgia figures.
Where and how to file is procedure this page does not walk through; the official self-help resource is Gwinnett County Magistrate Court. 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
- Georgia small claims limit
- $15,000
- Filing fee
- ~$54–$60 filing + ~$35–$50 service
- 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 Georgia small claims reference, cited to O.C.G.A. §15-10-2.
How the Georgia small claims limit works
Georgia's magistrate courts, often called "small claims court," hear civil claims up to $15,000 under O.C.G.A. §15-10-2. Two official magistrate courts (Gwinnett and DeKalb) state the "$15,000.00 or less" figure verbatim, and the same cap applies to a defendant's counterclaim, so a dispute can't quietly outgrow the court from either side. Above $15,000 the case belongs in state or superior court. Lawyers are allowed but not required: DeKalb's own FAQ says "you do not have to have an attorney… to bring or defend." The fees are where counties diverge: filing runs about $54–$60 and per-defendant service about $35–$50, but each county magistrate court sets its own schedule, so the two we checked already differed.
This checker compares your number to the Georgia 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 Georgia small claims reference.
Small claims checkers for other states
Same tool, each with its own ceiling and fee.