Small Claims Court: Up to ₱1,000,000, No Lawyer

Small claims is the Supreme Court’s simplified money-claim procedure. It runs under A.M. No. 08-8-7-SC, the Rules on Expedited Procedures in the First Level Courts, which merged the 1991 Revised Rule on Summary Procedure and the 2016 Revised Rules on Small Claims Cases into a single issuance.

Two features make it different from an ordinary civil case: the parties are not represented by lawyers, and the decision cannot be appealed.

The ceilings

The Supreme Court’s own introduction to the Rules records the change plainly: the jurisdictional amount for complaints for damages was increased to ₱2,000,000.00 and small claims cases to ₱1,000,000.00, and the definition of small claims was clarified to exclude actions seeking other reliefs. That exclusion matters. Small claims is for the payment or reimbursement of a sum of money. If you want something other than money, it is the wrong procedure.

What the Rules cover, and what they carve out

The Rules govern all civil actions except probate proceedings, admiralty and maritime actions, and small claims cases, which get their own rule inside the same issuance. Where a money claim exceeds ₱1,000,000.00, the Rules provide that no execution shall issue on the stated terms.

A counterclaim is treated the same way: any amount pleaded in excess of ₱1,000,000.00 runs into the same limit.

Which court, once you are above the ceiling

Above small claims, the court depends on the amount, and those thresholds were reset by Republic Act No. 11576, approved 30 July 2021.

Forcible entry and unlawful detainer stay with the first level courts whatever the assessed value, which RA 11576 states as an express exception.

How a case runs

1. File a Statement of Claim. Section 4 commences the action by filing an accomplished and verified Statement of Claim with the court.
2. Venue follows the ordinary rules. Section 5 makes the regular rules on venue apply, so there is no special small claims venue.
3. The case is raffled or assigned to the court designated to hear small claims cases.
4. It is heard on the court’s small claims day. Every court devotes at least 1 day a week to small claims, with a minimum of 5 cases scheduled per hearing day, and posts a notice of that day conspicuously in the court.
5. Decision, and that is the end of it. Appeals are prohibited.

The forms

The issuance publishes Small Claims Cases Forms 1 to 13 twice over, once in English and Filipino and once in English and Visayan, alongside a Flowchart of the Rule on Small Claims and a Small Claims Timeline. Two worth knowing by name:

The repeat-filer fee schedule

The Rules pay attention to parties who use small claims as a collection channel, and they price it. Per the Resolution dated 15 March 2022, where more than 5 small claims are filed by one party within the calendar year, regardless of judicial station, an additional filing fee applies, progressively and cumulatively.

There is a separate fee for re-filing. If a case is dismissed without prejudice under Section 12(f) and re-filed within 1 year from notice of dismissal, the plaintiff pays a fixed ₱2,000.00 filing fee, inclusive of the ₱1,000.00 fee for service of summons and processes.

Exemption from filing fees is granted only by the Supreme Court, unless the party is allowed to litigate as an indigent under the Revised Rules of Court.

The Rules also ask for the number of small claims cases filed within the calendar year by parties engaged in lending, banking and similar activities. A lender running many collections is treated differently from an individual chasing one debt.

What this page does not cover

The Rules set the repeat-filer and re-filing fees above, but they do not set the base filing fee for a first small claim, which comes from the Rules of Court schedule instead, so no figure for that appears here. This page also does not cover barangay conciliation, which many disputes must pass through before a court will hear them, nor the enforcement of a judgment once you have won.

Related

The katarungang pambarangay guide covers the barangay conciliation most disputes must pass through before a court will hear them. The barangay protection order guide covers the other proceeding a barangay can start without a lawyer. The Lemon Law guide covers the DTI route for a defective brand new vehicle, which is not a court case at all. The demand and settlement side of the Civil Code covers dividing an estate without going to court, the special power of attorney guide covers authorising someone to act for you, and the annulment guide covers the family cases that small claims explicitly cannot touch.

• All guides
• Calculators
• How figures on this site are sourced