Tools · Small Claims
Montana Small Claims Checker (2026)
Enter your claim amount to see whether it fits under the Montana small claims limit ($7,000), with the filing fee and whether a lawyer is allowed at the hearing.
Montana 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 Montana figures.
Where and how to file is procedure this page does not walk through; the official self-help resource is Montana Department of Justice (small claims). 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
- Montana small claims limit
- $7,000
- Filing fee
- ~$30–$60
- 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 Montana small claims reference, cited to Mont. Code Ann. §25-35-502 (limit); §25-35-505 (representation).
How the Montana small claims limit works
Montana caps small claims at $7,000, set by Mont. Code Ann. §25-35-502 and heard in the small claims division of the justice court. We confirmed the $7,000 figure verbatim in the official code. Montana runs its small claims forum as a genuinely lawyer-free process: §25-35-505 says a party may not be represented by an attorney unless all parties are represented, so one side cannot bring counsel while the other goes it alone. A defendant who wants a lawyer or a jury can instead remove the case to the regular civil docket of the justice court, but the small claims track itself stays informal. Filing fees are set by each court and start around $30, with service costs on top. The $7,000 ceiling applies statewide.
This checker compares your number to the Montana 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 Montana small claims reference.
Small claims checkers for other states
Same tool, each with its own ceiling and fee.