Tools · Small Claims
Missouri Small Claims Checker (2026)
Enter your claim amount to see whether it fits under the Missouri small claims limit ($5,000), with the filing fee and whether a lawyer is allowed at the hearing.
Missouri 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 Missouri figures.
Where and how to file is procedure this page does not walk through; the official self-help resource is Missouri Courts (small claims rules). 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
- Missouri small claims limit
- $5,000
- Filing fee
- ~$35–$45
- 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 Missouri small claims reference, cited to Mo. Rev. Stat. §482.305.
How the Missouri small claims limit works
Missouri's small claims limit is $5,000, set by Mo. Rev. Stat. §482.305 and heard in the small claims division of the associate circuit court. We confirmed the figure verbatim on the official revisor.mo.gov page: the judge has original jurisdiction over civil cases "where the amount in controversy does not exceed five thousand dollars, exclusive of interest or costs." Two details are easy to miss. First, the $5,000 is the principal only, so interest and court costs sit outside it. Second, the statute carves out several case types no matter the dollar amount, including libel, slander, false imprisonment, and anything asking for an injunction or possession of land. If your real damages run higher, you can still file for $5,000 and waive the rest to keep the case in small claims. Lawyers are allowed, and the base filing fee is modest (about $35 to $45), though you also pay a service fee for each defendant.
This checker compares your number to the Missouri 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 Missouri small claims reference.
Small claims checkers for other states
Same tool, each with its own ceiling and fee.