Research

Original data research from PlainCivil. Every page derives at least one statistic from our own normalized state court database, cites primary sources inline, and documents its methodology and limits in full.

What can you learn from PlainCivil research?

What this research covers

PlainCivil research ranks normalized state-court fee schedules across 120 process-state rows covering 12 process types in 10 states (verified through 2026-09-01).

120
process-state rows
12
process types
10
states covered

Analyses below answer filing-fee, process-coverage, or small-claims-limit questions from the live registry; they are published fee schedules, not legal advice.

Civil Court Filing Fee Variation Across U.S. States

How much do civil court filing fees vary state to state? Live comparison of divorce filing fees across PlainCivil's normalized fee schedules.

Civil Process Type Coverage Across U.S. States

Coverage analysis: which civil process types are documented in which fraction of U.S. states? Coverage matrix from PlainCivil's database.

Small Claims Court Jurisdictional Limit Variation

State-level dispersion in small-claims maximums and what it reveals about consumer access to pro-se dispute resolution.

Looking for the live database directly? Browse our filing-process directory, state-level fee tables, or read our methodology.

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. Research hub indexes original analyses derived from the portal's normalized state-court fee 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.