Why Alabama small claims fees differ by county

Small claims are filed on the small claims docket of the district court. Montgomery County's court lists the small claims limit as $6,000. The state filing fee is set by Section 12-19-71 of the Code of Alabama, last amended by Act 2024 SB84, effective October 1, 2024: $35 when the amount in controversy "totals one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500) or less", $109 when it is over $1,500 but not over $3,000, and $198 for district court cases, "including cases on the small claims docket", over $3,000.

Those three steps are why every Alabama county page shows three fees, one for each claim range.

The same statute leaves room for local charges. It says the 2004 act behind the current fee table "shall not affect any local court filing fees established by local act" (Section 12-19-71). Many Alabama counties have such local acts, and the clerk adds those fees to the state fee.

You can see the effect in the numbers. In most counties we verified, the step from the first to the second claim range and from the second to the third is the same as the state's steps, so the gap between two counties comes from the local part, which stays the same across all three ranges. A few counties, such as Madison, follow a different pattern, and their pages show their own figures. The tables below are generated from the fees we verified on each court's own page.

The verified figures are for one plaintiff and one defendant. The statute adds "fifty dollars ($50)" for each additional plaintiff, with no more than $500 in total for additional plaintiffs in one case (Section 12-19-71). Each court sets its own charge for an additional defendant, and service is often extra: some courts include sheriff's service in the fee, others add it, and others serve by certified mail. Each county page says which applies.

Many Alabama counties do not publish their fees online. For those, our calculator shows the range of the fees we verified and asks you to confirm with the clerk rather than guessing.

Work out which of the three claim ranges your claim falls in, then check the county page for the district court where you will file. If it is verified, it shows the fee for each range and what it includes; if not, call the district court clerk.

If you cannot afford the fee, the statute keeps a judge's authority "to allow a civil case to proceed at no cost to a party upon the judge's approval of an affidavit of substantial hardship" (Section 12-19-71). See our Alabama fee waiver guide.