Tools · Small Claims
Virginia Small Claims Checker (2026)
Enter your claim amount to see whether it fits under the Virginia small claims limit ($5,000), with the filing fee and whether a lawyer is allowed at the hearing.
Virginia 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 Virginia figures.
Where and how to file is procedure this page does not walk through; the official self-help resource is Virginia Courts Self-Help. 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
- Virginia small claims limit
- $5,000
- Filing fee
- ~$50–$74
- 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 Virginia small claims reference, cited to Va. Code §16.1-122.2 (jurisdiction); §16.1-122.4 (no attorneys).
How the Virginia small claims limit works
Virginia's Small Claims Division caps claims at $5,000 (Va. Code §16.1-122.2), and it enforces the no-lawyer principle harder than almost any state: §16.1-122.4 flatly requires each party to represent themselves, and the state self-help site confirms "each party must represent themselves." If you want an attorney, you don't use small claims; you use the regular General District Court civil docket, which goes up to $25,000. That distinction matters, because a lot of write-ups blur the $5,000 small-claims figure with the larger GDC number (some even quote an outdated $50,000). The small-claims answer is $5,000. Filing costs run around $50–$74 depending on locality and whether the sheriff serves the papers.
This checker compares your number to the Virginia 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 Virginia small claims reference.
Small claims checkers for other states
Same tool, each with its own ceiling and fee.