2026 civil fee rankings

Civil process rankings

States and process types ranked by filing costs and waiting periods from PlainCivil's indexed court schedules. Updated September 2026.

Most expensive states Fee percentile lookup

Fee rank is not wait rank

California leads average max filing fee at $539 (#1 of 10 states). That is not the longest wait: Divorce (North Carolina) lists 365 days (#1 of 20).

$539
#1 fee · California
365 days
#1 wait · Divorce (North Carolina)
$185
#10 fee cutoff
6
ranking boards

Both boards read the same indexed court schedules. A high average fee does not mean a long mandatory wait.

A second way to compare

Does a higher filing fee mean a longer wait?

No. Civil Lawsuit carries the highest average filing fee ($405) with no mandatory waiting period, while Divorce has a mid-range fee ($292) but the longest average wait (84.8 days). Fee rank and wait rank move independently.

High fee · long waitLow fee · long waitHigh fee · short waitLow fee · short wait$0$106.3$212.6$318.9$425.30d22.3d44.5d66.8d89.0dAverage filing feeAverage waiting period (days)Civil Lawsuit, Average filing fee: $405 · Average waiting period (days): 0dDivorce, Average filing fee: $292 · Average waiting period (days): 84.8dDomestic Violence Protection, Average filing fee: $0 · Average waiting period (days): 0dEviction, Average filing fee: $195 · Average waiting period (days): 6.5dGuardianship, Average filing fee: $317 · Average waiting period (days): 45dCourt Mediation, Average filing fee: $181 · Average waiting period (days): 0dName Change, Average filing fee: $239 · Average waiting period (days): 30.2dProbate, Average filing fee: $380 · Average waiting period (days): 0dProperty Dispute, Average filing fee: $404 · Average waiting period (days): 0dRestraining Order, Average filing fee: $0 · Average waiting period (days): 0dTenant Rights, Average filing fee: $109 · Average waiting period (days): 0d
Average filing fee and average waiting period across PlainCivil's covered civil process types
Read every process's values
  • Divorce: $292 avg fee, 84.8 day avg wait
  • Guardianship: $317 avg fee, 45 day avg wait
  • Name Change: $239 avg fee, 30.2 day avg wait
  • Eviction: $195 avg fee, 6.5 day avg wait
  • Civil Lawsuit: $405 avg fee, 0 day avg wait
  • Domestic Violence Protection: $0 avg fee, 0 day avg wait
  • Court Mediation: $181 avg fee, 0 day avg wait
  • Probate: $380 avg fee, 0 day avg wait
  • Property Dispute: $404 avg fee, 0 day avg wait
  • Restraining Order: $0 avg fee, 0 day avg wait
  • Tenant Rights: $109 avg fee, 0 day avg wait

Fee catalog

$0 listings vs paid schedules

Exclusive split of all 120 indexed rows, orthogonal to the most-expensive-states top-5 bar below.

Most expensive states · top 5 Horizontal bar chart of the top 5 items by value ($). Most expensive states · top 5 Top 5 1. California $539 2. Florida $418 3. New York $357 4. Illinois $321 5. Texas $276 Top 5 most-expensive states by average max filing fee · asof September 2026

All boards

Browse every ranking

Each card previews the top five from the live rankings table.

Most Expensive States

States with the highest average civil filing fees.

Most Expensive States →
  1. 1 California $539
  2. 2 Florida $418
  3. 3 New York $357
  4. 4 Illinois $321
  5. 5 Texas $276

Cheapest States

States with the lowest average civil filing fees.

Cheapest States →
  1. 1 Michigan $86
  2. 2 Ohio $87
  3. 3 North Carolina $99
  4. 4 Georgia $105
  5. 5 Pennsylvania $110

Most Expensive Processes

Civil process types with the highest national average fees.

Most Expensive Processes →
  1. 1 Guardianship $350
  2. 2 Civil Lawsuit $350
  3. 3 Divorce $300
  4. 4 Property Dispute $300
  5. 5 Name Change $225

Cheapest Processes

Civil process types with the lowest national average fees.

Cheapest Processes →
  1. 1 Restraining Order $0
  2. 2 Domestic Violence Protection $0
  3. 3 Small Claims $75
  4. 4 Tenant Rights $100
  5. 5 Eviction $150

Longest Waiting Periods

Civil processes with the longest mandatory waiting periods.

Longest Waiting Periods →
  1. 1 Divorce (North Carolina) 365 days
  2. 2 Divorce (California) 180 days
  3. 3 Divorce (Pennsylvania) 90 days
  4. 4 Name Change (California) 60 days
  5. 5 Guardianship (Florida) 60 days

Highest Filing Fees

Individual civil processes with the highest maximum filing fees.

Highest Filing Fees →
  1. 1 Civil Lawsuit (California) $1,435
  2. 2 Property Dispute (California) $1,435
  3. 3 Probate (New York) $1,250
  4. 4 Probate (California) $1,000
  5. 5 Civil Lawsuit (Florida) $900

Rankings aggregate stored court schedule fields. County charges, waivers, and current local rules can differ. Not legal advice.

Download the court filing-fee registry cited on this page: civil-process-filing-fees.csv (CC0).

Fee and timeline figures on PlainCivil are rendered from the portal's state-process database compiled from published court schedules, no fee is invented for a ranking. Rankings hub lists boards that aggregate stored court-schedule fee and wait fields from the portal database. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-09-01. PlainCivil does not rate, rank-recommend, or advise on legal strategy, it reports what published schedules and court materials contain.