1Court Research · 2026
The State of Court Filing Costs
What does it actually cost to bring a civil case in America? We compiled the base civil filing fee from official court fee schedules across 2,701 counties in all 50 states + DC. The short answer: it depends enormously on which side of a county line you’re on.
Key findings
- The national median civil filing fee is $210, but state medians run from $72 (South Dakota) to $435 (California) — a 6× difference for the same act of filing a civil case.
- Cost of entry isn’t only a state question. In Ohio, fees range $160–$800 across counties, so where you file can matter as much as which state you’re in.
- 90% of counties now accept e-filing, but only 30% make it mandatory — the mandate is usually on attorneys, with self-represented filers still allowed to file on paper.
- 71% of counties offer a free public case search. The remaining 29% require contacting the clerk to see a docket.
Most expensive states to file
| State | Median | Range | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | $435 | $435–$450 |
| 2 | Florida | $400 | $300–$906 |
| 3 | Utah | $375 | $105–$375 |
| 4 | Connecticut | $360 | statewide |
| 5 | Louisiana | $350 | $200–$520 |
| 6 | Texas | $350 | $50–$365 |
| 7 | Tennessee | $341 | $225–$419 |
| 8 | Illinois | $319 | $205–$388 |
| 9 | Hawaii | $315 | $200–$315 |
| 10 | Minnesota | $310 | $310–$325 |
Least expensive states to file
| State | Median | Range | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Dakota | $72 | $25–$72 |
| 2 | Nebraska | $87 | $42–$89 |
| 3 | Virginia | $90 | $90–$296 |
| 4 | Missouri | $101 | $45–$200 |
| 5 | Montana | $120 | $90–$120 |
| 6 | District of Columbia | $120 | statewide |
| 7 | New Mexico | $132 | statewide |
| 8 | South Carolina | $150 | statewide |
| 9 | Michigan | $150 | $150–$175 |
| 10 | Indiana | $157 | $100–$232 |
Widest spread within a single state
| State | Lowest county | Highest county | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio | $160 | $800 | $640 |
| Florida | $300 | $906 | $606 |
| Louisiana | $200 | $520 | $320 |
| Texas | $50 | $365 | $315 |
| Utah | $105 | $375 | $270 |
Methodology
Figures are the base civil-complaint filing fee published by each county’s court or clerk, collected from official fee schedules and statutes and re-verified on a recurring cadence. They exclude service of process, e-filing surcharges, and case-type add-ons, all of which raise the real cost of filing. State figures are the median across that state’s counties in our dataset (2,701 counties had a published civil fee we could verify). Where a state sets one statewide fee, the median equals that fee.
Every county’s figure links to its source on that county’s page. Corrections are welcome at support@1court.ai.
Using this data
Free to cite and link with attribution to 1Court. Reporters and researchers can request the underlying per-county dataset.