Methodology and sources
All data was collected on 2026-10-20 by reading each state's statute or fee schedule on the web. Each record in the data files carries the citation, the URL, the quoted words and the checked date. Where an official legislature site could not be read by machine (a JavaScript-only site, or one that blocks automated access), the text was read from a named copy (FindLaw, Justia, Public.Law, or the legislature's own API) and the page says so, with that copy's "current as of" date. The official page is still the one linked as the source.
Data files
| File | What | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| states.json → small estate | Procedure, dollar limit(s), waiting period, real-property rule, measure | Each state's small-estate statute (51 jurisdictions) | 2026-10-20 |
| states.json → claims | Creditor claim period, trigger, outer limit | Each state's claims statute (39 jurisdictions) | 2026-10-20 |
| fees.json | Court fee to open an estate, small-estate fee, other items | Official fee statutes and court fee tables (13 states) | 2026-10-20 |
Every source
How the checker decides
- Fits: the value entered is at or under the statute's figure ("does not exceed" is read as at-or-under), using the surviving-spouse figure when the box is ticked and the statute has one, and no listed bar applies.
- Over: the value is above a fixed figure.
- Check: the figure is an inflation-adjusted base (Maine, Michigan) and the value is above the base; the date of death falls in a year for which no figure is published (Colorado, whose figures come by year of death from the Judicial Branch form JDF 999); real estate is in the estate where the statute excludes it; or a will exists where the route is for intestate estates.
- No cap: the simplified route has no dollar ceiling (Georgia, Kentucky, New Hampshire).
- Dates: the waiting period is added in days to the date of death. Claim periods in months are added as calendar months (a day that does not exist rolls back to month end); for states whose period starts with notice or letters, the checker assumes that event 45 days after death, and every page says so.
- Fees: flat fees and surcharges are added; bracketed fees use the bracket the value falls in; percentage and per-$100 fees are computed from the value entered.
Excluded and gaps
- Most states: the court fee schedule could not be located or read on the date checked (web search budget exhausted; guessed official URLs failed). Fee pages exist only for states listed here.
- Idaho § 31-3201A sets only a $25 distribution petition fee and leaves other probate fees to Supreme Court rule; Minnesota § 357.021 sets a general civil fee without naming probate; Missouri § 483.580 points to §§ 488.010-488.020. None of the three is used.
- No claim-period page for Connecticut, Hawaii, Kentucky, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming: the claims section was not read on the date checked.
- No county pages: no county probate court's fee page could be fetched on the date checked, so county pages were not built.
- Thresholds in Maine and Michigan are shown as the statutory base figure; the current inflation-adjusted figure is published by the courts and was not fetched.
What this site does not do
It does not give legal advice, does not prepare documents, does not refer anyone to lawyers and takes no fee from anyone in a probate matter. Its pages describe what the statutes say; the probate court decides what applies.