Small Claims for Unpaid Invoice: Limits, Filing, Service

The filing fee is the cheapest part of this. In the states below it runs from $10 to $295, which is less than most freelancers charge for an hour, and it is not what stops these cases. What stops them is a receipt nobody signed, a ceiling that turned out to be half the number you were reading, and a claim filed against a trading name that does not legally exist.

So this is the mechanical part of suing a client: what your state lets you ask for, whether the company you formed can walk in without a lawyer, which courthouse has to take it, what filing and serving actually cost, and what happens the week service fails. Winning is a different subject, and so is the demand letter that should come first. Collecting on a judgment once you have one is a third subject again — the paper says you are owed, which is not the same as being paid — and it has its own page: how to collect a judgment from a business.

I am not a lawyer and none of this is legal advice. Dollar figures and deadlines move by amendment, so each one below names the section it came from, links it, and is dated 29 August 2026 — and where the number came from a court's guidance rather than the statute or rule, the source list says which.

The ceiling is two numbers, and the second one is probably yours

Nearly every "small claims limits by state" table online prints one number per state. For a freelancer that is the wrong number about half the time, because several states set a lower ceiling for anything that is not a human being.

Every figure above was read on 29 August 2026. Most of the rows are cited to the statute or the court rule itself. Two are not, and those say so, because a court's own manual is a weaker thing to be standing on than the rule it is describing.

• California — Code of Civil Procedure 116.220, 116.221, 116.230 and 116.540; background at California Courts self-help.
• New York — New York City Civil Court Act 1801, 1803, 1809, 1801-A and 1803-A; Uniform City Court Act 1801 and 1803; Uniform Justice Court Act 1801 and 1803.
• Washington — RCW 12.40, sections .010, .020, .040, .080 and .105, with the surcharge at RCW 7.75.035.
• Illinois — Illinois Supreme Court Rules 281, 282, 284 and 9, as the Supreme Court publishes them. The practical passages further down about naming a defendant come from the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit's small claims booklet, which is one county's guidance, not a statewide rule.
• Michigan — rule text from the Michigan Court Rules, chapter 4. The two statutory figures are quoted here from the state's District Court Magistrate Manual, which reproduces MCL 600.8401 and 600.8425(1) word for word, because the legislature's own site would not open on the day these were checked. That row sits one step further from the source than the rest.
• Florida — Florida Small Claims Rules effective 1 July 2026, rules 7.010, 7.050, 7.070 and 7.090, with fees at Florida Statutes 34.041.
• Texas — Government Code 27.031 for the ceiling. Rule 500.4, on who may represent an entity, is taken from the Texas Justice Court Training Center's Civil Deskbook, fifth edition, which quotes it, and from the Texas State Law Library's guide; the judiciary's own rules server stayed unavailable throughout these checks, so the rule text itself was not read.

The three fee cells marked set locally are the answer, not a gap. Illinois, Michigan and Texas leave that number to the county or the district court, and the only figure worth printing is the one your clerk gives you.

Two rules about the ceiling catch people who invoice in the four figures. The first is that going over it is a one-way door. Michigan makes the mechanism visible: if your claim exceeds the limit you must state the real amount, state that by commencing the action you waive the excess, and accept that the judgment bars a later action in any court to recover it (MCR 4.302(D)). An $8,400 invoice filed there is a $7,000 invoice, permanently. The second is that California caps how often you may use the court for real money at all: no more than two small claims actions demanding over $2,500 anywhere in the state in a calendar year, with a declaration under penalty of perjury attached to each (CCP 116.231). Three bad clients in one year is not a hypothetical in this line of work.

The company you formed changed which court you are in

This is the part that surprises sole traders who incorporated for tax reasons.

California halves your ceiling and then tells you who may stand up: a corporation or other non-natural party appears only through a regular employee, an appointed or elected officer or director, or in a partnership a partner — and specifically someone engaged for purposes other than solely representing that party in small claims court, who must file a declaration at the hearing stating the basis of their authority (CCP 116.540). Attorneys are barred from taking part at all, with narrow exceptions (116.530). For a one-person LLC that is usually satisfied by you. The declaration is still a real form.

New York does not let the entity through the door at all. No corporation, no partnership, no association and no assignee of a claim may bring an action under the small claims article, and neither may an insurer suing in its own name or its insured's (CCA 1809). What is left is the Commercial Claims Part, where the ceiling is whatever the small claims ceiling is in that court, the fee is $25 plus the cost of the mailings, the claimant's principal office has to be in New York State, and the claimant certifies that no more than five such actions, this one included, have been started that calendar month (CCA 1801-A and 1803-A). Town and village courts have no commercial claims part, so outside the city that means a City Court.

Washington runs the same idea through its dollar figures rather than its doors: $10,000 for a natural person, $5,000 in all other cases. Illinois inverts it. Supreme Court Rule 282(b) says no corporation may appear as claimant, assignee, subrogee or counterclaimant in a small claims proceeding unless it is represented by counsel, so an incorporated freelancer chasing $900 has to pay somebody to chase it. The same rule runs the other way on defence: a corporation may defend through an officer, director, manager, department manager or supervisor. Read the noun carefully — the rule says corporation, and if you are an LLC the clerk's reading is the one that will decide your morning.

Texas and Florida are the friendliest to a small entity. A Texas justice court lets a corporation or other entity, an LLC included, be represented by an employee, owner, officer or partner who is not an attorney (Rule 500.4(b)). Florida allows any principal with legal authority to bind the business — officer, member, managing member or partner — or any employee authorised in writing by one, though a non-attorney may not carry it into an appeal (Rule 7.050(a)(2)). Florida adds a catch aimed at debt buyers: if the court decides you are in the business of collecting purchased or assigned claims, it may require you to hire counsel anyway.

Which is why the first question is not "what is my state's limit" but "who is the plaintiff". If you signed personally and never assigned the invoice to your company, filing personally is the shorter road in every state in that table.

Which courthouse, and against which name

Venue in these cases is generally the defendant's home ground, not yours. The Nineteenth Judicial Circuit's booklet states the Illinois position plainly: file where the defendant resides or where the events giving rise to the claim happened, a corporation resides in any county where it does business or has an office (735 ILCS 5/2-102), and filing in the wrong county may get the case dismissed. California says small claims venue follows the ordinary civil rules (CCP 116.370), and the court is required to look at venue itself even when nobody raises it.

New York asks the same question at a smaller scale, and the scale is the trap. The defendant has to reside, keep an office for business or have regular employment in the city for a New York City claim, in the county for a City Court claim, and in the town or village itself for a justice court claim (CCA 1801, UCT 1801, UJC 1801). A client two towns over can put you in the wrong building without either of you doing anything wrong.

Before any of that, read what you signed. A venue clause pointing at a court in another state, or an arbitration clause, can end this route before it starts. That clause is one of the nine that decide whether you get paid, and it is worth finding on the day you send the demand letter rather than at the clerk's window.

Then get the name right, because you are suing a legal entity and not a brand. The same Illinois booklet is unusually direct about the two failure modes. For an incorporated defendant, look the legal name up in the Secretary of State's business register, and while you are there take down the registered agent, who is one of the people summons can be served on. For a business trading under an advertising name — the booklet's example is "Action Plumbing" — the defendant you must name is the owner, found through the assumed name index the county clerk keeps, and a judgment against a defendant who is incorrectly named cannot be collected. Sort that out before you pay a filing fee, not after somebody turns up to say they have never heard of the company you sued.

What filing costs, and the number it should be compared against

Service sits on top of the filing fee and is usually where the real money goes: certified postage, a sheriff's statutory fee, or a private process server. Florida says so in the rule itself — the cost of the certified mailing is in addition to the filing fee. Washington gives some of it back at the end: the small claims judgment is certified as a district court civil judgment and increased by the statutory cost amount and post-judgment interest, and what you later spend enforcing it, reasonable attorney's fees included, can be added without regard to the $10,000 limit (RCW 12.40.105).

The number to compare all that against is the ordinary civil filing fee, not zero. In California the uniform fee for the first paper in a limited civil case demanding $10,000 or less is $205 (Government Code 70613). The gap between $75 and $205 is not what should decide a $9,000 invoice. What should decide it is that in small claims you generally cannot bring a lawyer, are unlikely to recover attorney's fees, and in several of the states above give up anything over the ceiling for good the moment you file.

That calculation flips if a statute is doing work for you. Illinois's Freelance Worker Protection Act puts double the unpaid amount plus attorney's fees on the table, which is both a reason to have a lawyer and a figure that may not fit under $10,000 — the arithmetic is in the $500 threshold and the 30-day rule. Work out the statutory route first and the small claims route second, not the other way around.

Service is where these cases actually die

Filing starts a clock that has nothing to do with whether your client reads their post.

California requires service completed at least 15 days before the hearing if the defendant is in the county and 20 days if outside it, with proof of service filed at least five days before — and where the clerk served by mail, service is complete on the date the defendant signs the return receipt, not the date it was posted (CCP 116.340). Washington is stricter about that signature: certified mail counts only if a return receipt bearing the signature of the party being served is filed with the court, and service must be complete at least ten calendar days before the first hearing.

New York does the mailing for you and builds in a presumption that runs the other way. The clerk sends two copies, one by ordinary first class mail and one by certified mail with return receipt requested; if after twenty-one days the first class copy has not come back as undeliverable, the party complained against is presumed to have received notice (CCA 1803). A defendant who signs for nothing is presumed served anyway, which is the opposite of the Washington rule and worth knowing before you assume silence has stopped your case.

Florida allows certified mail to a Florida resident with the receipt signed by the defendant or someone authorised to receive mail at the residence or principal place of business, gives you 120 days from filing to serve, and has the clerk set the first pretrial conference no more than 50 days after the action is filed (Rules 7.070 and 7.090). Illinois has its own arithmetic: for a $2 fee plus postage the clerk mails the summons and complaint certified or registered, restricted delivery when the defendant is a natural person, and the returned receipt is proof of service only if it shows delivery at least 21 days before the appearance date (Rule 284). The filing itself is electronic — Rule 9(a) requires e-filing in civil cases — but a self-represented filer without a computer, an email account, a bank card, or the English to work the system can certify for an exemption under Rule 9(d). The county booklets do not always mention that second half.

Those are one rule in local dialects. A defendant who signs nothing is the normal failure mode, and every state has decided in advance what to do about it.

When the receipt comes back unsigned

Nothing dramatic happens, and the next attempt is not automatically billed to you. Michigan is explicit: where it appears the notice was not received at least seven days before the appearance date and the defendant does not appear, the clerk must, at your request, issue further notice without additional cost and set the hearing for a later date (MCR 4.303(C)). Ask your own clerk what re-service costs before you assume it is another fee.

That attempt should not be another envelope to the same address. Go to the state business registry, take the registered agent's name and street address, and have the sheriff or a process server deliver it there. Michigan makes one allowance that helps here: when the defendant is a corporation or a partnership, the certified mail need not be deliverable to the addressee only and may be signed for by an agent (MCR 4.303(B)) — so the receptionist signing is not the problem it would be with an individual. If the register shows the entity dissolved or the agent resigned, stop and go back to the last question on the collections ladder — whether there is anything there to collect — before you spend another fee. A shell company can be served perfectly and still pay you nothing.

Keep the file tidy while this is going on. The demand letter, the certified mail receipt, the invoice, the contract, the delivery emails: that stack is both your evidence at a hearing that lasts about half an hour and your answer to a judge asking what you tried before filing.

One asymmetry belongs in the decision itself. In California a plaintiff has no right to appeal the judgment on their own claim, while the defendant does (CCP 116.710). The speed you are buying is paid for with a finality that runs one way. If the sum is large, if the client is disputing the quality of the work rather than the timing of the payment, or if a statute might double what you recover, that is the point to spend an hour with a lawyer licensed where the case would be heard. If a figure here has gone out of date in your state, tell me and it gets corrected and dated.