Small Claims Court Dollar Limits by State
Every state sets its own maximum dollar amount a plaintiff may sue for in small claims court, and the limit for an individual often differs from the limit for a business entity. Filing above the limit forces a case into a higher (and much more expensive) court. This table gives, for each state, the small claims dollar limit for individuals, the limit for business/corporate plaintiffs where it differs, and the court name that hears the case, so someone deciding where to file knows the ceiling before they start.
Records25
Sources25
Verified
Review by
Licenceunknown
The data
| jurisdiction | court name | individual dollar limit | statute or rule citation | business dollar limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | small claims division | $5,000 | A.R.S. § 22-503 | |
| California | small claims court | $12,500 | Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 116.221 | $6,250 |
| Delaware | Justice of the Peace Court | $25,000 | 10 Del. C. ch. 93 | |
| Hawaii | Small Claims Court | $5,000 | Haw. Rev. Stat. § 633-27 | |
| Iowa | small claims court | $6,500 | Iowa Code chapter 631 | |
| Kansas | $10,000 | K.S.A. 61-2703 | ||
| Maine | $10,000 | 14 M.R.S. § 7482 | ||
| Maryland | District Court | $5,000 | Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 4-405 | |
| Massachusetts | district court department | $7,000 | G.L. c. 218, § 21 | |
| Minnesota | conciliation court | $20,000 | Minn. Stat. § 491A.01 | |
| Missouri | small claims court | five thousand dollars | RSMo § 482.305 | |
| Montana | small claims court | $7,000 | MCA 25-35-502 | |
| Nebraska | Small Claims Court | seven thousand five hundred dollars | Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-2802 | |
| Nevada | justice court | $10,000 | NRS 73.010 | |
| New Hampshire | $10,000 | RSA 503:1 | ||
| North Carolina | ten thousand dollars ($10,000) | N.C.G.S. § 7A-210 | ||
| North Dakota | Small Claims Court | $15,000.00 | N.D.C.C. ch. 27-08.1 | |
| Ohio | six thousand dollars | R.C. § 1925.02 | ||
| Oregon | small claims department | $10,000 | ORS 46.405 | |
| South Carolina | seven thousand five hundred dollars | S.C. Code § 22-3-10 | ||
| Vermont | $10,000.00 | 12 V.S.A. § 5531 | ||
| Virginia | $5,000 | Va. Code § 16.1-122.2 | ||
| Washington | small claims department | Ten thousand dollars | RCW 12.40.010 | Five thousand dollars |
| West Virginia | magistrate courts | $20,000 | W. Va. Code § 50-2-1 | |
| Wisconsin | Small claims court | $10,000 | Wis. Stat. ch. 799 |
Where this came from
Every record above links the page it was taken from and quotes the sentence that states it. These are the 25 sources this dataset was assembled from.
- azleg.govhttps://www.azleg.gov/ars/22/00503.htm
- selfhelp.courts.ca.govhttps://selfhelp.courts.ca.gov/small-claims-or-limited-civil
- courts.delaware.govhttps://courts.delaware.gov/jpcourt/jurisdiction.aspx
- courts.state.hi.ushttps://www.courts.state.hi.us/self-help/small_claims/small_claims
- iowacourts.govhttps://www.iowacourts.gov/for-the-public/representing-yourself/small-claims/
- ksrevisor.govhttps://www.ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch61/061_027_0003.html
- mainelegislature.orghttp://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/14/title14sec7482.html
- mgaleg.maryland.govhttps://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gcj§ion=4-405
- malegislature.govhttps://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleI/Chapter218/Section21
- revisor.mn.govhttps://revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/491A.01
- revisor.mo.govhttps://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=482.305
- archive.legmt.govhttps://archive.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0250/chapter_0350/part_0050/section_0020/0250-0350-0050-0020.html
- nebraskalegislature.govhttps://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=25-2802
- leg.state.nv.ushttps://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-073.html
- gencourt.state.nh.ushttps://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/LI/503/503-1.htm
- ncleg.govhttps://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_7A/GS_7A-210.html
- ndcourts.govhttps://www.ndcourts.gov/legal-self-help/small-claims
- codes.ohio.govhttps://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1925.02
- oregonlegislature.govhttps://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors046.html
- scstatehouse.govhttps://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t22c003.php
- legislature.vermont.govhttps://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/12/187/05531
- law.lis.virginia.govhttps://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title16.1/chapter6/section16.1-122.2/
- app.leg.wa.govhttps://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=12.40.010
- code.wvlegislature.govhttps://code.wvlegislature.gov/50-2-1/
- wicourts.govhttps://www.wicourts.gov/services/public/selfhelp/smallclaims.htm
Machine-readable
- data.jsonThe whole dataset — every record with its source URL and source quote.
- Open Knowledge Format bundleOne JSON object per line — every record's frontmatter and quoted span exactly as it is held here, in one fetch.
- How this is made and checkedWhat "verified against source" does and does not mean.
From your own code
Same records, same quotes, without scraping the page: refsource is on PyPI and npm. Each value comes back carrying the URL it was read from and the sentence on that page that states it — .source and .quote sit on the value itself rather than in a side channel, so the checking step is available instead of skipped.
pip install refsource
refsource lookup small-claims-court-dollar-limits-by-state jurisdiction=Arizona
npx -y refsource lookup small-claims-court-dollar-limits-by-state jurisdiction=Arizona