Small Claims Court Fees
$135 Small Claim Service Fee
$30-$75 Court Filing Fee (see list of Court Filing Fees below)
$50& up* Process Serving Fee (per defendant per serve)
$10 Electronic Filing Fee (applicable in some counties)
$75 Skip Trace Search (lookup defendant’s current address)
$79 SSN Search (lookup SSN for wage garnishment, WG-035)
$250 + 50% of amount collected – Small Claims Judgment Collection (minimum judgment amount $2,500.00)
Your total fee will depend upon the amount of your claim and the number of defendants. For example, if you are suing one defendant AirBNB for $5,600, your fee would be $235.00 ($135 Small claim service fee + $50.00 Court filing feet + $50 Process serving fee to serve registered agent Corporation Service Company doing business in California as CSC Lawyers Incorporating Service located at 2710 Gateway Oaks Drive Suite 150N, Sacramento, CA 95833). Depending on the region, the process serving portion of the fee may be higher.
*Process serving fees vary from region to region; We have process servers nationwide and we can serve your SC-100 Plaintiff’s Claim and Order to go to Small claims Court. We’ll negotiate the best rate we can for you, and give you a total fee quote up front, before payment.*
Additional process serving fees are charged when more than one defendant, document and/or location is involved. We can often negotiate a discount for a second serve at the same location. To avoid extra charges, please indicate the correct current address and phone number for serving the defendant. If the defendant has to be re-served at a different address, the process server charges an additional fee.
The majority of our cases are completed for the $125.00 process serving service fee, plus court costs. Save $25 on process serving fee here. However, if your case requires significant additional research, such as location of defendants current address, additional skip trace search fees may be charged. We will notify you in advance if this becomes necessary. As the fees discussed above are part of the “court costs,” a portion or all of the fees may be awarded to you in addition to the judgment, assuming the judge rules in your favor.
COURT FILING FEES FOR CALIFORNIA
If you are suing for:
$1 – $1,500 Court fees — $30.00
$1,501 – $5,000 Court fees — $50.00
$5,001 – $10,000 Court fees — $75.00
After you fill out our form and submit it to us, we will notify you by email that we have received it. We’ll contact you with any questions we have in order to complete the legal papers. We will also advise you of the total fee to be charged for your claim before moving forward.
***Note: We are not attorneys and we encourage you to contact an attorney for legal advice. Although we provide you with the benefit of our expertise and excellent service, we cannot accept responsibility for the details or the outcome of your claim. All sales are final no refunds***
What We Do For Our Clients:
- We have a legal document assistant/paralegal professionally prepare all of the documents for your small claims case.
- We conduct name searches with the county records office & the California Secretary of State to correctly identify the defendant(s).
- We file your claim with the appropriate California court.
- We will professionally serve the defendant (the person or entity that you are suing) with all necessary court documents.
- We file proof(s) of service with the court after the defendant(s) have been successfully served.