10-state registry · verified March 2026
Court filing-fee statistics
Counts compiled from PlainCivil's 120 process-state rows (10 states × 12 process types). Every number is read live from the registry; partial US coverage is labeled. Educational registry facts only, not legal advice.
10-state registry · verified March 2026
PlainCivil lists 120 process-state filing-fee rows across 10 covered states; 20 (16.7%) are free to file, paid filings run $20–$1435, and California leads on average maximum fees.
- 120
- registry rows
- 16.7%
- free to file
- $20–$1435
- paid fee span
- $405
- top process (Civil Lawsuit)
According to published court schedules compiled in this partial registry. Filing fees are schedule ceilings, not total case cost.
This page reports aggregates over the same process-state rows that power the rankings and state pages. Download the CSV (CC0) or read the methodology.
Key findings
8 registry counts from this extract, recomputed on each request.
- 1. 120 process-state rows sit in this PlainCivil extract across 10 covered states and 12 process types. This is a partial registry, not all 50 states.
- 2. 16.7% 20 of 120 rows list $0 filing fees on both the minimum and maximum columns (10 of 10 domestic-violence protection rows are free in every covered state). Free and paid populations are counted separately.
- 3. $539 California leads this extract with an average maximum filing fee of $539 across its process rows. Average is over process types in this coverage set, not a single court case.
- 4. $405 Civil Lawsuit carries the highest average midpoint fee ($405) among the 12 process types in this registry. Midpoint is (minimum + maximum) / 2 per state row.
- 5. $1,435 is the highest published filing-fee ceiling in this extract (California, Civil Lawsuit). This is a court schedule ceiling, not total litigation cost or attorney fees.
- 6. 365 days Divorce (North Carolina) lists the longest recorded waiting period in this extract (365 days). Waiting-period fields describe statutory or court-stated delays, not guaranteed case duration.
- 7. $20–$1435 is the paid-filing fee span when both minimum and maximum are strictly positive (100 rows). Rows with $0 on both columns are excluded from this span.
- 8. 2026-03 is the latest last-verified month stamped on process rows in this extract. Court schedules can change; always read the underlying state page for the live figure.
Average maximum fees by state
Top states by average maximum filing fee across process types in this 10-state extract.
Average fees by process type
Midpoint average (minimum plus maximum, divided by two) per state row, ranked highest first.
How to read these numbers
PlainCivil currently covers 10 states with 12 civil process types each. A row is one process in one state. Free rows have $0 on both fee columns; paid rows use published schedule minima and maxima. Rankings and this page share the same live queries; if a state page disagrees, trust the entity row. Download civil-process-filing-fees.csv for reuse with attribution (CC0).
Compiled counts are dedicated to the public domain ( CC0 ). Underlying court schedules remain public law.
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. Key Findings are aggregates over the processes table in this partial registry. Free ($0) and paid filing populations stay labeled separately. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of March 2026. 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 |