What the Magisterial District Judge's office staff — there is no separate elected clerk at this level. In Philadelphia, filings go through the Municipal Court's First Filing Unit / Office of Judicial Records instead of a magisterial district judge's office. charges to file an eviction or a small claims case, what the constable charges to serve it, and how to ask the court to waive the fees.
Everything the clerk charges on an eviction or small claims case in Crawford County. The figures set by state statute are verified and apply here. A dash means we have not yet read this county’s own schedule — not that the fee is zero.
| Fee | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Eviction filing — possession + rent claim | — | |
| Eviction filing — possession only | — | |
| Appearance fee — eviction defendant | — | There is no fee for a defendant to appear or respond in a Pennsylvania landlord-tenant case, in a magisterial district court or in Philadelphia Municipal Court. A tenant does not file a written answer; they simply show up at the hearing the complaint gives notice of. |
| Appearance fee — small claims defendant | — | The same is true of an ordinary civil claim up to $12,000: Pennsylvania's magisterial district judges are the small claims court, and a defendant pays nothing to appear or respond. |
| Jury demand — 12 jurors | — | No jury of any size sits at the trial level in Pennsylvania eviction or small claims cases, so there is no fee to demand one. A jury becomes available only after an appeal for a trial de novo in the Court of Common Pleas. |
| Jury demand — 6 jurors | — | Same answer as the twelve-person figure: there is no jury, of six or any other size, until a case is appealed out of the magisterial district or Municipal Court system. |
| Jury demand — small claims | — | No jury demand fee in small claims either, for the same structural reason: the magisterial district judge (or Philadelphia Municipal Court) that hears a small claim never empanels a jury. |
| Mediation fee | — | There is no statewide mediation fee attached to filing an eviction or small claims case. Philadelphia runs a city-funded Eviction Diversion Program that offers landlords and tenants conciliation before a case reaches Municipal Court, but it is free to use and it is a Philadelphia program, not a statewide court requirement or fee. |
| E-filing surcharge | — | No statewide e-filing surcharge, because there is no statewide e-filing system for these cases in the first place. Filing is on paper at the magisterial district judge's office or at Philadelphia Municipal Court's filing counter. |
The filing fee is not the whole bill. Somebody has to serve the defendant, and in Pennsylvania the constable sets that price county by county — it is the most variable number on this page. Outside Philadelphia, a constable's fee is fixed by state law at $13.00 to serve a landlord-tenant complaint on the first defendant (plus $5.00 for each additional defendant) and $90.00 to execute an order for possession, the same in all 66 magisterial-district counties because 44 Pa.C.S. § 7161 sets it, not the county. Philadelphia does not use that schedule at all: its Municipal Court bundles a $27.00 service charge into the filing fee, and its Sheriff charges a flat $343.00 to execute a writ of possession.
Pennsylvania courts will waive court fees, costs, and charges for people below certain income levels, under 246 Pa. Code Rule 206 (Pa.R.C.P.M.D.J. No. 206) and 246 Pa. Code Rule 206. There is one statewide form — you do not need a Crawford County version of it.
| The court waives | If your available income is |
|---|---|
| Full | A sworn petition showing you are 'without financial resources to pay the costs of litigation,' with disclosure of income, property, debts and dependents. The judge grants or denies it; there is no partial reduction. |
Pennsylvania is all-or-nothing, the same shape as Georgia and Florida. Rule 206 does not offer a sliding scale by income band the way some other states do — you either satisfy the poverty showing and pay nothing, or you do not and pay the full filing fee.
Fee waiver information verified August 1, 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.
Crawford County Circuit Court
Magisterial District Judge's office staff — there is no separate elected clerk at this level. In Philadelphia, filings go through the Municipal Court's First Filing Unit / Office of Judicial Records instead of a magisterial district judge's office.
No clerk website found. Contact the county courthouse directly.
None statewide
There is no statewide electronic filing system for magisterial district court or Philadelphia Municipal Court landlord-tenant complaints. A self-represented landlord or tenant files on paper, in person, at the magisterial district judge's office for the district where the property sits, or at Philadelphia Municipal Court's First Filing Unit. A handful of counties, Delaware County among them, offer their own local e-filing option for other case types, but it is a county convenience, not a statewide system, and not required for landlord-tenant cases. 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.
The headline answer is structural, not a dollar range: Pennsylvania's eviction filing fee is fixed by statute everywhere, and it does not vary by county discretion the way Georgia's does, but it does depend on which of two court systems hears the case, and that split falls along exactly one line — Philadelphia versus everywhere else. In the 66 counties served by a magisterial district judge, the statewide Landlord/Tenant fee table set under 42 Pa.C.S. § 1725.1 and reissued each January 1 by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts runs $100.50 for a claim of $2,000 or less, $122.50 for $2,000.01–$4,000, and $167.00 for $4,000.01–$12,000, current as of the table effective January 1, 2025. We confirmed that table against Allegheny, Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery counties' own guidance, and all of them describe the identical tiered structure rather than a locally set number, which is what you would expect since a magisterial district judge has no authority to set fees. Philadelphia has no magisterial district judges at all. Landlord-tenant cases there go to the Municipal Court, which publishes its own, separate fee table: $94.75 for $2,000 or less, $116.75 for $2,000.01–$10,000, and $138.75 for over $10,000 — lower than the statewide table at every tier, mainly because Philadelphia folds its $27.00 service charge into that total rather than billing it separately, something the 66 magisterial-district counties do not do.
These are two real statewide tables, not a county-by-county patchwork. Every one of the 66 magisterial-district counties uses the first table; Philadelphia alone uses the second. Which table applies is decided by where the rental property sits, not by anything a county or a judge chooses.
Statutory backbone: 42 Pa.C.S. § 1725.1 — Costs (magisterial district judge cost schedule). 42 Pa.C.S. § 1725.1, with its dollar figures adjusted every January 1 by the increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Workers under subsection (b) — a mechanism most recently extended to January 1, 2040 by a 2024 amendment.. There is no gap to reconcile here the way there is in Georgia. § 1725.1 does not print a single flat number; it sets base figures and an automatic annual CPI adjustment, and the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts publishes the resulting dollar amounts in a cost table every January. The $100.50 / $122.50 / $167.00 Landlord/Tenant figures we cite are that table's January 1, 2025 numbers, not our own arithmetic, and they match what county magisterial district offices tell filers to expect. Philadelphia Municipal Court's $94.75 / $116.75 / $138.75 table sits outside § 1725.1 altogether; Municipal Court is a court of record under a different part of Title 42, and its cost schedule is published separately by the First Judicial District rather than by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. Statute text checked August 1, 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.