Tools · Small Claims
New York Small Claims Checker (2026)
Enter your claim amount to see which New York court ceilings it fits under; the limit here depends on the court, not one statewide number.
New York 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.
A 2025 bill (S2636) would raise the town/village justice-court limit to $10,000, but it had not been enacted as of mid-2026. The tiered limits below are the ones in effect now.
Enter your claim amount above to see it compared against the New York figures.
Where and how to file is procedure this page does not walk through; the official self-help resource is NY Department of Labor. 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
- New York limit (varies by court)
- $10,000 / $5,000 / $3,000 by court
- Filing fee
- ~$15–$20
- 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 New York small claims reference, cited to NYC Civil Court Act §1801; Uniform District Court Act §1801; Uniform Justice Court Act §1801.
How the New York small claims limit works
New York is the state most often reported wrong. Nolo and others print "$5,000 statewide," but the statutes are tiered by court, and collapsing them to one figure misleads people. The New York City Civil Court and the city courts (Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and others) hear claims up to $10,000. The Nassau and Suffolk district courts cap small claims at $5,000. Town and village justice courts, the local courts across much of upstate, stop at $3,000. All three sit in separate §1801 provisions (Civil Court Act, Uniform District Court Act, Uniform Justice Court Act), and we confirmed each verbatim. So the honest answer to "what's the limit in New York?" is: it depends which court your case belongs in. Lawyers are allowed, though most people represent themselves, and filing fees are low ($15–$20).
This checker compares your number to the New York 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 New York small claims reference.
Small claims checkers for other states
Same tool, each with its own ceiling and fee.