Indiana Court Filing Fees by County

How Indiana court filing fees are actually set

The make-or-break question for Indiana is not whether the filing fee varies by county — it does not — but whether the county is even the right unit to publish at, and for 91 of the state's 92 counties it is. Every county but one runs eviction and small claims cases through that county's own Circuit Court and Superior Court, sharing one Clerk's office and one small claims docket, and the statute that sets the fee (IC 33-37-4-6, plus the add-on fees in IC 33-37-5) is a single statewide dollar table with no local-option clause anywhere in it — we specifically checked, and the only local rule-making power the Indiana Supreme Court delegates to counties covers special-judge selection, court reporter services, caseload allocation, and acting judges, not fees. Marion County (Indianapolis) is the one structural exception: instead of a small claims division of the ordinary Circuit or Superior Court, it has nine separate township small claims courts (Center, Decatur, Franklin, Lawrence, Perry, Pike, Warren, Washington and Wayne townships), each an independent court of record with its own elected judge, assigned by where in the county the case arises. Marion County also runs on its own fee statute, IC 33-34-8-1, rather than the one every other county uses. Adding up each statute's own numbers: a small claims eviction against one defendant costs $97.00 in the other 91 counties ($35.00 costs fee, $10.00 bundled service fee, and $52.00 in mandatory statewide add-on fees), and $130.00 in a Marion County township court (a $36.50 township docket fee rounded to $37.00, $15.00 service, a separate $26.00 small claims service fee, and the same $52.00 in add-ons). We built both totals directly from the current Indiana Code and could not find a live clerk fee page anywhere in the state that states the all-in total in one place to check our arithmetic against, despite trying Marion, Hamilton, Allen, Lake, St. Joseph, Vanderburgh, Monroe, Tippecanoe, Vigo, Delaware, Boone and Ohio counties' own sites. Call the clerk before you file to confirm the exact number.

The statutory caps

This is one statewide statutory table plus a second, parallel statutory table that applies only inside Marion County, not a schedule that each county sets for itself. We show both because they produce two different real totals, not because either county chose its own number.

Source: IC 33-37-4-4; IC 33-37-4-6; IC 33-34-8-1, Civil costs fee; small claims costs fee and small claims service fee; Marion County small claims court fees and costs. IC 33-37-4-6, as currently amended, sets the $35.00 small claims costs fee and $10.00 small claims service fee; IC 33-34-8-1 sets Marion County's parallel township-court fee schedule; both cross-reference the add-on fees collected under IC 33-37-5.. Neither the $35.00/$10.00 small claims total nor the $100.00 IC 33-37-4-4 general civil total is the whole story. Layered on top by IC 33-37-5 are a $5.00 public defense administration fee (33-37-5-21.2), a $15.00 judicial salaries fee for small claims or $20.00 for general civil (33-37-5-26), a $5.00 court administration fee (33-37-5-27), a $5.00 document storage fee (33-37-5-20), a $20.00 automated record keeping fee (33-37-5-21), a $1.00 judicial insurance adjustment fee (33-37-5-25), and a $1.00 pro bono legal services fee (33-37-5-31) — $52.00 in add-ons in a small claims case. A general civil (plenary) filing also picks up a $75.00 jury fee under 33-37-5-19.5, charged on every tort or plenary filing regardless of whether a jury is ever demanded, and a separate $28.00 sheriff service of process fee under 33-37-5-15 that is not bundled the way the small claims service fee is. Checked August 1, 2026.

Indiana is a usable county-level publishing unit for 91 of its 92 counties, and Marion County (Indianapolis) is the one real exception. Everywhere else, one county has one unified trial court system — a Circuit Court and one or more Superior Courts sharing a single elected Clerk's office — and small claims and eviction cases go onto that county's Small Claims Division. Marion County does not have a small claims division of its Circuit or Superior Court at all. It has nine separate township small claims courts (Center, Decatur, Franklin, Lawrence, Perry, Pike, Warren, Washington and Wayne), each its own court of record with its own elected judge, and which one hears your case depends on which township the property sits in. The state's own Small Claims Manual says outright that it does not cover Marion County's procedures, which is the state confirming the same thing we found.

The filing fee does not vary county by county the way it does in Georgia or Tennessee. Indiana's fee statutes are written entirely by the state legislature, and the only local court-rule authority the Indiana Supreme Court delegates to counties covers special-judge selection, court reporter services, caseload plans and acting judges — not fees. What does differ is Marion County's own separate fee statute: a small claims eviction against one defendant works out to $97.00 everywhere except Marion County, and $130.00 inside a Marion County township court, by our own addition of each statute's line items. We could not find a single clerk's page anywhere in the state, Marion or otherwise, that states that all-in total in one place, so treat both numbers as our best reading of the code rather than a number we copied off a fee schedule.

Service on the tenant is bundled into the filing fee almost everywhere in Indiana, not just in some counties the way it is in Georgia. Outside Marion County, the $10.00 small claims service fee is charged once at filing no matter whether the clerk mails the Notice of Claim or has the Sheriff deliver it by hand — the state's own manual says you pay the same amount either way. Inside Marion County, service is $15.00 for either method plus a separate $26.00 fee that only exists there. Neither figure is what it costs to physically remove a tenant after judgment; we could not find a statute that prices that step for an ordinary small claims eviction, and we could not reach a county sheriff's civil-process page to check a real number.

There is no jury at all on Indiana's small claims docket unless the defendant pays to leave it. Filing on the small claims docket automatically waives a jury, and a defendant who wants one has ten days after being served to file an affidavit and pay a $70.00 deposit, which moves the whole case to the ordinary civil (plenary) docket — confirmed directly on the state's own Small Claims Manual. That is a different mechanism from most states' jury demand fees: Indiana does not price a six-person jury separately from a twelve-person one, because demanding either one means leaving small claims court altogether. A completely separate $75.00 jury fee is charged on every civil tort or plenary case at filing, whether or not anyone ever asks for a jury, but that fee has nothing to do with the small claims track that almost every eviction uses.

We tried to confirm both totals above against a real clerk's fee page in Marion, Hamilton, Allen, Lake, St. Joseph, Vanderburgh, Monroe, Tippecanoe, Vigo, Delaware, Boone and Ohio counties, spanning the state's largest and smallest by population, and could not successfully load a usable fee page from any of them. What let us stay confident anyway is that the dollar figures come from the Indiana Code itself, section by section, and from the state's own current Small Claims Manual for the two figures ($10,000 jurisdiction, $70.00 jury deposit) that manual states outright. Call the clerk before you file to confirm the exact total, especially in Marion County.

A fee waiver is available and, as in every other state we have checked, it is all-or-nothing rather than graduated: a sworn statement of indigency filed with the court either gets your fees waived in full or it does not, with no partial or sliding-scale reduction described in the statute.

Common questions