What the DeKalb State and Magistrate Court Clerk's Office charges to file an eviction or a small claims case, what the marshal charges to serve it, and how to ask the court to waive the fees. Cases are heard in the DeKalb County Magistrate Court.
Filing fee plus marshal service plus enforcing the order, using only figures we have verified for this county. Attorney fees, if you use one, are on top of this and are not included.
Everything the clerk charges on an eviction or small claims case in DeKalb County. A dash means the county does not publish that figure — we would rather show you a gap than a guess.
| Fee | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Eviction filing — possession + rent claim | $104 | Georgia magistrate courts do not charge a different amount for an eviction that also claims unpaid rent, so this is the single dispossessory filing line. DeKalb's Magistrate Court states plainly that "it costs $104.00 to file a dispossessory warrant," and its small claims page independently gives the same $104.00, which is why we are confident in it. One caution: the same page carries a leftover sentence quoting $54.00 in an example about unnamed defendants. That $54.00 matches the court's 2021 schedule and appears to be stale text the county has not cleaned up. If the clerk quotes you $54.00, ask which is current. |
| Eviction filing — possession only | $104 | Same figure as possession-plus-rent; Georgia magistrate courts do not charge a different amount for an eviction that also claims unpaid rent, so this is the single dispossessory filing line. Same caveat about a stale $54.00 reference on the same page applies. |
| Appearance fee — eviction defendant | No fee | Nothing. DeKalb's Magistrate Court states directly that there is no charge to file an answer to a dispossessory warrant. |
| Appearance fee — small claims defendant | — | |
| Jury demand — 12 jurors | — | There is no jury demand fee in Georgia magistrate court, because there are no jury trials there. O.C.G.A. 15-10-41(a) provides that magistrate court cases are tried without a jury. To get a jury you must remove the case to State or Superior Court, which has its own higher fee schedule. |
| Jury demand — 6 jurors | — | Not applicable — Georgia magistrate court does not empanel juries. |
| Jury demand — small claims | — | Not applicable — Georgia magistrate court does not empanel juries. |
| Mediation fee | — | |
| E-filing surcharge | — | Not found. |
| If your claim is | You pay | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| $0 – $15,000 | $104 | 'The filing fee is $104.00. The fee to serve one defendant is $35.00. Service for additional defendants increases the costs by $35.00 for each added defendant.' Page explicitly defines small claims as under $15,000. |
Claims above $15,000 are not small claims in Georgia — they are filed as Law cases and cost more.
The filing fee is not the whole bill. Somebody has to serve the defendant, and in Georgia the marshal sets that price county by county — it is the most variable number on this page. Across the Georgia counties verified so far, service runs from $0 to $60 per tenant and executing the writ of possession from $10 to $88 — in the counties that publish those separately at all.
Per NAMED defendant, by the DeKalb County MARSHAL — not the Sheriff. 'The Marshal will serve the warrant for a fee of $50.00 for each named defendant. If there are unnamed defendants on the warrant, those persons will be treated as a single defendant, e.g. John Brown and All Others would cost $70.00 for service.' This $50.00 figure carries no printed effective date. It differs from the small-claims (non-dispossessory) service rate of $35.00/defendant published on the Small Claims page — dispossessory service is priced separately/higher here.
'For Executing A Writ Of Possession To Dispossess A Tenant Or Intruder: $88.00,' per the DeKalb Marshal's fee schedule on the State Court site (same Marshal's Office serves both State and Magistrate Court), explicitly dated 'Effective July 1, 2012, pursuant to. HB 1025.' This is the only writ-execution figure found and may be stale relative to the $50.00 current service rate quoted elsewhere on the county's site; no more recent execution fee was located.
Source: DeKalb County Marshal civil process fees, dated July 1, 2012. Checked July 31, 2026.
Georgia courts will waive court fees, costs, and charges for people below certain income levels, under O.C.G.A. § 9-15-2 and O.C.G.A. § 9-15-2(a). Georgia has no single statewide form: the Magistrate Court Clerk hands you the court's own affidavit when you ask.
| The court waives | If your available income is |
|---|---|
| Full | You file a sworn poverty affidavit stating you are unable to pay costs. If no one contests it, the case proceeds without prepayment of costs. |
Georgia is all-or-nothing. Unlike Illinois, which has four graduated bands, O.C.G.A. § 9-15-2 offers a single full waiver by poverty affidavit — you either qualify or you pay in full. A judge may inquire into the affidavit, and any party may contest it.
Fee waiver information verified July 30, 2026 against the Illinois General Assembly statute text and the Illinois Courts approved-forms library. We report what the statute and the form say. We cannot tell you whether you qualify — that is the court's decision.
DeKalb County Magistrate Court
PeachCourt
PeachCourt is used by many but not all Georgia magistrate courts, and it is generally not mandatory for a self-represented filer. Where it is used, PeachCourt adds its own service fee on top of the court's filing fee. eFileIL →
We publish the court's and clerk's own contact information and link to their pages. We do not take your information, route you to anyone, or file anything on your behalf. For questions about court procedure — as opposed to what it costs — use the Illinois Courts self-help center.
Georgia behaves like Illinois, not Texas: both halves of the cost vary. Across the 90 counties we have verified the magistrate court's dispossessory filing fee runs from $47 to $120, and what the Sheriff, Marshal or Constable charges to serve the papers and carry out the writ varies on top of that. There is one Georgia-specific trap you will not meet in the other two states: 29 of those counties fold service on the first tenant into the filing fee rather than billing it separately, so adding a published filing fee to a published service fee double-counts. Where we know a county bundles, its page says so and our total does not add service twice.
Georgia has no statewide magistrate court fee schedule. Each county's magistrate court publishes its own, usually as a one-page PDF or a table on the clerk's site, and the great majority of them print no effective date at all.
Statutory backbone: O.C.G.A. § 15-10-80(a); § 15-21A-6(a) — Magistrate court costs; Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority fee. O.C.G.A. § 15-10-80 as amended; § 15-21A-6 indigent defense add-on. § 15-10-80(a) lets each magistrate court set a filing deposit by local court rule "not to exceed $22.00," and § 15-21A-6(a) adds a $15 statewide indigent-defense fee on civil filings. Statute text checked July 30, 2026.
Compiled and verified by David Scott. We re-check every source document monthly and re-read any county whose schedule has changed. If the clerk quotes you something different from what is on this page, tell us and we will fix it. Read the full methodology.