Tools · Small Claims
Texas Small Claims Checker (2026)
Enter your claim amount to see whether it fits under the Texas small claims limit ($20,000), with the filing fee and whether a lawyer is allowed at the hearing.
Texas 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 Texas figures.
Where and how to file is procedure this page does not walk through; the official self-help resource is Texas State Law Library. 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
- Texas small claims limit
- $20,000
- Filing fee
- ~$54–$86
- 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 Texas small claims reference, cited to Tex. Gov’t Code §27.031(a)(1).
How the Texas small claims limit works
Texas has the highest small-claims ceiling of the fifteen states here: $20,000, heard in the justice courts (the old "small claims court" was folded into justice court in 2013, but people still call it that). Government Code §27.031 fixes the figure at "not more than $20,000, exclusive of interest," and it applies the same to individuals and businesses. Lawyers are allowed but not required; plenty of people appear on their own. The one number to treat with care is the filing fee: Texas sets it locally, so a base of around $54 climbs with county-specific add-ons and per-defendant service costs, and the official statewide fee schedule was not machine-readable at review time. The $20,000 limit has held since September 1, 2020 (up from $10,000).
This checker compares your number to the Texas 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 Texas small claims reference.
Small claims checkers for other states
Same tool, each with its own ceiling and fee.