Tools · Small Claims
South Carolina Small Claims Checker (2026)
Enter your claim amount to see whether it fits under the South Carolina small claims limit ($7,500), with the filing fee and whether a lawyer is allowed at the hearing.
South Carolina 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 South Carolina figures.
Where and how to file is procedure this page does not walk through; the official self-help resource is South Carolina Judicial Branch (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
- South Carolina small claims limit
- $7,500
- Filing fee
- ~$80 + $10 per extra defendant
- 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 South Carolina small claims reference, cited to S.C. Code §22-3-10.
How the South Carolina small claims limit works
South Carolina does not have a court called "small claims." The magistrate court handles what most people mean by that, and its civil jurisdiction stops at $7,500. We confirmed the figure verbatim on the official state code page: §22-3-10 gives magistrates jurisdiction when "the sum claimed does not exceed seven thousand five hundred dollars," and that same $7,500 ceiling runs through the whole list in the statute, from contract debts to property damage to actions to recover possession of property. Lawyers are allowed on either side, though the magistrate hearing is informal enough that many people appear on their own. There is no single statewide filing fee you pay to the state. Each county magistrate collects the fee, and it commonly runs about $80 to open a case, with roughly $10 added for each extra defendant you name.
This checker compares your number to the South Carolina 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 South Carolina small claims reference.
Small claims checkers for other states
Same tool, each with its own ceiling and fee.