Compare small claims services
Factual comparisons with sources and dates, including the cases where you should use someone else.
Every price on these pages was read from the competitor's own published pricing on the date stated. We have not paraphrased their marketing, copied their copy, or invented a weakness. Where a competitor is genuinely the better choice for your situation, the page says so — there is no version of this business that survives being caught lying about a rival.
The shape of this market, in one paragraph
California small claims help is barbelled. At one end the courts run Guide & File, which is free, official, generates your form and stops there — and most counties also staff a free self-help center that will check your paperwork. At the other end, JusticeDirect (which acquired People Clerk) operates as a law firm and charges $650 a case, $600 for an attorney demand letter and $449 for a consultation. In between sit filing utilities like TurboCourt at roughly $55 a filing, which e-file in some counties but help with nothing before or after the form.
We are deliberately in the middle: free to write and download a demand letter, $29 to have it printed and certified-mailed with proof of delivery, $49 for a complete case, $19 a month if you file regularly. We are software, not a law firm, which is exactly why we cost a fraction of one — and exactly why we cannot advise you on your case.
Read the honest version first
If you only read one of these, read the comparison with California's free Guide & File. It is the competitor nobody can undercut, and it sets out plainly when you should pay nobody at all.
Start with a demand letter
Most California small claims cases settle before anyone sees a courtroom. The letter is free to write, and you can have us print and certified-mail it for $29.
No account needed to start. We are not a law firm and cannot give legal advice.