SUE-O-METER · 51 STATES
How much does it cost to sue someone?
Filing fees + process-server fees + attorney range — all in. Pick your state for the bottom-line numbers.
Pick a state
Alaska
20 day deadline
Alabama
30 day deadline
Arkansas
30 day deadline
Arizona
20 day deadline
California
30 day deadline
Colorado
21 day deadline
Connecticut
30 day deadline
District of Columbia
21 day deadline
Delaware
20 day deadline
Florida
20 day deadline
Georgia
30 day deadline
Hawaii
20 day deadline
Iowa
20 day deadline
Idaho
21 day deadline
Illinois
30 day deadline
Indiana
20 day deadline
Kansas
21 day deadline
Kentucky
20 day deadline
Louisiana
15 day deadline
Massachusetts
20 day deadline
Maryland
30 day deadline
Maine
20 day deadline
Michigan
21 day deadline
Minnesota
21 day deadline
Missouri
30 day deadline
Mississippi
30 day deadline
Montana
21 day deadline
North Carolina
30 day deadline
North Dakota
21 day deadline
Nebraska
30 day deadline
New Hampshire
30 day deadline
New Jersey
35 day deadline
New Mexico
30 day deadline
Nevada
21 day deadline
New York
20 day deadline
Ohio
28 day deadline
Oklahoma
20 day deadline
Oregon
30 day deadline
Pennsylvania
20 day deadline
Rhode Island
20 day deadline
South Carolina
30 day deadline
South Dakota
30 day deadline
Tennessee
30 day deadline
Texas
20 day deadline
Utah
21 day deadline
Virginia
21 day deadline
Vermont
21 day deadline
Washington
20 day deadline
Wisconsin
20 day deadline
West Virginia
30 day deadline
Wyoming
30 day deadline
What goes into the estimate
The Sue-O-Meter combines three numbers: (1) your court's filing fee from our county-by-county Filing Fee dataset, (2) the typical process-server fee for your state — sheriff-only states are usually cheaper, (3) the attorney representation range for the case type. Small-claims cases generally don't allow lawyers, so the attorney column is zero.