About LegalCostCalculator.org
Independent legal fee research for every US state — who we are, how we work, and why accuracy is the only thing we care about.
Our Mission
Our mission is to educate. We give everyone the most accurate, complete legal cost information available online, free.
Keeping it accurate takes real work. Fees change across all 50 states and 530+ counties, so we check every official source monthly and review every state each quarter.
Legal costs in the United States vary dramatically by state — and finding accurate, up-to-date fee information typically means digging through dozens of government websites, court clerk PDFs, and statutory code lookups. A small claims filing fee that costs $30 in one state can cost $200 in another. LLC formation fees range from $50 to $500. Divorce filing fees span $80 to $435 across the country. None of this information is in one place.
We built LegalCostCalculator.org in 2026 to fix that. Our mission is straightforward: give every person — regardless of income, legal experience, or location — clear, verified information about what it actually costs to navigate common legal processes in their state. No paywalls on our data. No guesswork.
We are not a law firm. We do not give legal advice. We research, verify, and publish government-sourced cost data so that pro se filers, small business owners, researchers, and journalists have a reliable starting point.
If this information helped you, please consider supporting our work. A coffee, a short review, or using our templates and partner links is what keeps this site free. Buy us a coffee or leave us a review.
Who We Are
LegalCostCalculator.org is run by a small, independent editorial team. Our work combines legal research, public records collection, data engineering, and consumer advocacy: we find the official fee schedules, collect them in one place, build the calculators and datasets, and write for people handling legal matters on their own. We do not have financial relationships with any court system, law firm, or government agency. Our data and editorial content are produced independently.
We research each process from official sources — court rules, fee schedules, and state statutes — and answer the questions people actually ask before they file.
We collect every fee from primary government sources — court fee schedules, Secretary of State portals, state statutes — and put them in one place, with a link to each source.
Every page is written for the person about to walk into a courthouse, not for attorneys. Plain language, specific numbers, and direct links to official sources.
We focus exclusively on US legal cost data. An automated monitor checks every official source page monthly and flags changes for review, and we review every state each quarter.
What We Cover
Maximum claim limits ($2,500–$25,000) and filing fees for small claims court in all 50 states — including tiered fee structures and statute of limitations.
State filing fees, annual report costs, publication requirements, franchise taxes, and estimated year-1 totals for forming an LLC in every state.
Divorce court filing fees, process service costs, and children's surcharges — plus fee waiver eligibility guides for low-income filers in every state.
Maximum notary fees per acknowledgment, jurat, and oath in every state, including remote online notarization (RON) availability and fee caps.
Beyond the calculators, we publish how-to guides, entity-specific small claims guides (how to sue a landlord, contractor, employer, etc.), defendant guides, judgment collection guides, and fee waiver eligibility guides — covering 4,100+ pages across all 50 states and 530+ counties.
Our Editorial Standards
Every piece of content published on LegalCostCalculator.org follows the same process:
For full details on our sourcing process, see our Methodology page and Data Sources page.
Data Accuracy & Updates
Legal fees change. States update their fee schedules, courts revise their filing costs, and legislatures adjust statutory limits. Our last full review was completed in November 2026. Individual pages display their last-reviewed date via the author bar below.
Affiliate Disclosure
Some pages on this site contain links to third-party legal service providers — LLC formation services, online divorce platforms, notary services, and document preparation tools. These are affiliate links: if you make a purchase through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Affiliate relationships are disclosed on every page where they appear. Our fee data, editorial content, and calculator results are never influenced by whether a service provider has an affiliate relationship with us. We link to services we believe are genuinely useful — not because of commission rates.
Contact Us
Found an error in our data? Have a question about a specific state's fees? Want to suggest a calculator or guide we should build? We respond to every email.