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Data · Small-claims limits

Small-claims dollar limits by state

The most money a claim can seek in a state's small-claims court, in the words of the statute or the court system. Each row is one limit from one official document, with the link and the exact sentence it comes from, re-checked against the document.

Checked October 29, 2026 · CC BY 4.0 · Not legal advice

What is in this dataset?

The most money a claim can seek in each state's small-claims court, or in the court that hears small claims where the state names it differently (magistrate, justice or city court). One row per state with the figure, the court, the statute or court page it comes from, and the verbatim sentence.

Use it to see how large a dispute a state's small-claims court can hear, for consumer-protection, landlord-tenant, contract and personal-injury work, and to quote the limit with its source. Limits change by statute; each row's date is when we last found its sentence in the document.

Records
51
Look up by
51
state
Primary-source records
51

The letters are explained in what P, S, D and U mean.

Where does the data come from?

Each limit is read once in the official text (the legislature's or code revisor's statute page, or the state court system's own page); the sentence that carries the figure is stored as a verbatim quote and re-found in the document on every check. Where a state splits the limit by who sues or by claim type, the row holds the general limit and its note names the other.

Period covered
October 29, 2026
Places
States
How often we refresh it
Every quarter
Records read
October 29, 2026

Official sources

  • Alabama Unified Judicial System, Lee County circuit court, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Alaska Court System, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Arizona Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Arkansas Judiciary, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Judicial Branch of California, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Colorado Judicial Department, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Connecticut Judicial Branch, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Delaware Courts, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Council of the District of Columbia, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Supreme Court of Florida, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Georgia Judicial Branch, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Hawaii State Judiciary, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Idaho Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Illinois Courts, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Indiana Office of Court Services, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Iowa Judicial Branch, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Kentucky Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Louisiana Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Maine Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Maryland General Assembly, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Massachusetts Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Michigan Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Mississippi Judiciary, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Missouri Revisor of Statutes, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Montana Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Nebraska Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Nevada Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • New Hampshire General Court, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • New Jersey Courts, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • New Mexico Courts, Administrative Office of the Courts, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • New York State Department of Labor, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • North Carolina General Assembly, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • North Dakota Court System, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Ohio Legislative Service Commission, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Oklahoma Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Oregon Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Rhode Island Judiciary, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • South Carolina Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • South Dakota Unified Judicial System, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Tennessee General Assembly, Fiscal Review Committee, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Supreme Court of Texas, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Utah State Courts, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Vermont Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Virginia Code Commission, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Washington State Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • West Virginia Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Wisconsin Court System, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.
  • Wyoming Legislature, by official web pages. Statute or court-system text published by a government body for public use; quoted briefly (25 words or fewer) with its source.

The sources the records cite most

What does a record look like?

The full records add the dates, the quoted source text and every field in the CSV and JSON files below.

What each of the 12 main columns means
jurisdiction
Two-letter state code
agency
The body that publishes the source
measure
small-claims-limit
period
current law
value
The limit in dollars
unit
dollars
valueText
The figure as the source words it
cite
The statute section or court page
quote
The verbatim words (25 or fewer) that carry the figure
document
The document the quote comes from
documentUrl
Link to that document
note
An exception or second limit stated in the same source

How do I use it in my own tools?

courtfees_lookup
For one two-letter state code: the small-claims dollar limit, with the court, the statute or page, the URL and the verbatim quote.
courtfees_compare
Small-claims limits for up to 10 states side by side, each with the source and the quote.
courtfees_search
Rows whose text matches the words given, such as a state, a court type or a statute ("magistrate").

How to cite this dataset

You can reuse, adapt and republish this data, including commercially, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0). The only condition is that you credit Probative and link to the source.

Version
1.0.0, released October 30, 2026
Every version
10.5281/zenodo.23792751 (always points to the newest)
License
CC BY 4.0

Download the data

Free, no email or login. The files are hosted on this site and Zenodo, a public research archive.

Suggested citation

Probative. (2026). Small-claims dollar limits by state: the most a claim can seek in each state's small-claims court (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23792752

Credit line for a chart, table or article

Source: Probative, Small-claims dollar limits by state: the most a claim can seek in each state's small-claims court, version 1.0.0, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23792752, licensed CC BY 4.0.

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Not legal advice. These are the limits as each state's statute or court system states them, kept for research and marketing planning. Limits have exceptions and change; a person with a claim should ask a lawyer or the court clerk.

What changed recently?

  • 2026-10-29 · 51 rows covering 50 states and DC, each from one official document with its URL and quote. (source)

The full log is in changes.json.

What are the limits?

  • The table covers the states listed, each read in its statute or on its court system's own page. Every row carries the exact sentence it rests on, so a reader can check it in one click.
  • Some states hear small claims in a court with another name (magistrate, justice or city court); the row names the court. Where a state sets a second limit for a kind of claim or claimant, the row's note says so.
  • A limit is the most a claim can seek, not what a case is worth. Filing fees, rules on lawyers and appeal rights differ by state and by court and are not in this table.
  • A statute can be amended. The date on each row is when we last found the sentence in the document; the correction log shows any change we make.
  • Records older than 130 days since their last check are marked stale in the files until we re-check them. Every confirmed error we fix is listed in the data corrections log.

Found a wrong value? Report an error with the record id and the source that shows the right value.

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