2026 ranking · Max Fee
Highest Individual Filing Fees
Individual civil processes ranked by maximum filing fee, the single most expensive filings. According to PlainCivil's compiled state court fee schedules, updated September 2026 -- these are indexed figures, not a live clerk quote.
Fee rank is not wait rank
Civil Lawsuit (California) leads this list at $1,435; the #20 cutoff is $450 (Civil Lawsuit (Pennsylvania)); a $985 spread across the 20 ranked entries.
- $1,435
- #1 Civil Lawsuit (California)
- $450
- #20 cutoff
- 20
- entries ranked
This list and the counterpart fee/wait board both read stored court-schedule fields. County charges, waivers, and current local rules can differ.
What it takes to make the highest individual filing fees list
Every process-state combination PlainCivil tracks, banded by filing fee
$450 Top 6% higher than 94% of 120 process-state combinations
the full PlainCivil corpus, bucketed by value
Each bar is a $0.2K-wide band; taller bars hold more process-state combinations. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source PlainCivil court-schedule fields · September 2026
Across PlainCivil's indexed coverage, 20 of 120 process-state combinations are free ($0) and fee-charging filings run $20–$1,435 in the 10 states we track. Rankings spot outliers; they are not legal advice. Verify current figures with the clerk where you plan to file, and read the linked state or process record for fee waivers and local rules.
| # | Name | Max Fee |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Civil Lawsuit (California) | $1,435 |
| 2 | Property Dispute (California) | $1,435 |
| 3 | Probate (New York) | $1,250 |
| 4 | Probate (California) | $1,000 |
| 5 | Civil Lawsuit (Florida) | $900 |
| 6 | Property Dispute (Florida) | $900 |
| 7 | Probate (Florida) | $600 |
| 8 | Court Mediation (California) | $500 |
| 9 | Guardianship (Florida) | $500 |
| 10 | Civil Lawsuit (Illinois) | $500 |
| 11 | Probate (Illinois) | $500 |
| 12 | Property Dispute (Illinois) | $500 |
| 13 | Civil Lawsuit (New York) | $500 |
| 14 | Eviction (New York) | $500 |
| 15 | Property Dispute (New York) | $500 |
| 16 | Civil Lawsuit (Texas) | $500 |
| 17 | Guardianship (California) | $465 |
| 18 | Eviction (California) | $450 |
| 19 | Guardianship (New York) | $450 |
| 20 | Civil Lawsuit (Pennsylvania) | $450 |
Source: State court filing fee schedules and legal aid organizations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does everyone pay the maximum fee?
No. Maximum fees often apply to the most complex or highest-value cases. Many states use tiered fee structures based on the amount in controversy, case complexity, or filing type. A simple uncontested matter may cost a fraction of the maximum. Fee waivers further reduce costs for those who qualify.
Are these fees just for filing or total costs?
These are initial filing fees only, the cost to open a case with the court. Total costs including service of process, motion fees, discovery costs, expert witnesses, and attorney fees can be many times higher. Filing fees represent the entry barrier to the court system, not the total cost of litigation.
Explore More Rankings
Read our methodology . How this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Source: Published state court fee schedules (compiled) PlainCivil state-process filing-fee database · 2026
Take this with you
Where to go next from highest individual filing fees.
- See average fees by state rather than the single highest outliers View state rankings
- Check where a specific dollar figure sits against our full indexed distribution Use the fee percentile tool
- Read a step-by-step guide for the process behind a high-fee filing Browse guides
Filing fees and waiting periods change; verify current figures with your local court before filing.
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. Ranking values are aggregates of database filing-fee fields, not a separate federal disposition series. 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.
| Publisher | PlainCivil |
| Sources | Public state court datasets and federal civil-justice records |