Eviction and small claims filing fees, appearance fees, jury demands, and what the sheriff charges to serve the papers — taken from each county's own fee schedule, with the date we checked it printed on the page.
Ask a search engine what it costs to file an eviction and you get a state-level range. That range is not what you pay. What you pay is set by your county board, and it is published — if at all — in a PDF on a clerk's website. Here is what we found when we actually read them.
Across 15 Illinois counties we have verified. Same case type, same state, 11 different prices.
Per defendant. Set by each county sheriff, not by the court, and almost nobody aggregates it. This is the number that surprises people.
So far. Some counties publish an image-only scan; at least one publishes a schedule from 2010. We flag those rather than repeat them.
Illinois first, because it has a clean statutory backbone and real county-to-county variation. More states as they are verified — we publish a county when we have read its source document, not before.
Illinois Circuit Courts. Small claims up to $10,000. Fees set county by county under 705 ILCS 105/27.1b.
Built on the same verified county data. Both of them show their work — you can see which numbers came from a source and which are your own inputs.
True cost to evict
Filing fee, service, and enforcement for your county, added up honestly — with the gaps marked as gaps rather than zeroed out.
Is it worth filing?
Your claim amount against the real fees in your county, so you can see what is left if you win — and what you are out if you lose.