1. Who we are, and who we aren't
SmallClaimsHQ ("we," "us," "SmallClaimsHQ") operates smallclaimshq.com. We are not a law firm, we do not employ attorneys to represent you, and using this site does not create an attorney-client relationship of any kind. We prepare documents and explain procedure using official California court materials and the words you provide, we do not give legal advice, select legal theories for you, value your claim, or tell you whether to sue, settle, or appeal.
2. What's actually available right now
As of this writing, the following are live and free: an eligibility and filing-fee checker, a statute-of-limitations estimator, a court venue finder, a demand letter generator, an interest calculator, a fee waiver checker, a deadline calculator, a scoped Q&A assistant, and a set of plain-English guides. A paid guided filing service is planned but not yet launched. Nothing in these Terms should be read as an offer to sell that service before it's actually available.
3. Use these tools at your own judgment
Everything on this site is general information based on California statutes and official court materials current as of the date it was published. Laws change, court practices vary by county, and every case has facts a general tool can't see. You're responsible for confirming anything before relying on it, including with your county's free Small Claims Advisor (Code Civ. Proc. § 116.940), before filing, serving, or relying on a deadline. We don't check whether the facts or amounts you enter are accurate, and we don't check every exception that can apply to your situation.
4. How the free tools handle what you type
The eligibility checker, court finder, demand letter generator, interest calculator, fee waiver checker, and deadline calculator run entirely in your browser. Nothing you type into them is sent to or stored on our servers.
The "Ask a question" assistant is different: your question (and recent messages in that conversation) is sent to Anthropic's Claude API to generate a response. That assistant is deliberately restricted to general procedural information, cites the statute behind any rule it states, and is built to decline questions that call for judgment about your specific case, redirecting those to your county's free Small Claims Advisor instead. See our Privacy Policy for how that data is handled.
5. Your account, if you ever create one
If and when account creation becomes available (for the paid filing service), you're responsible for keeping your login credentials secure and for all activity under your account. Tell us right away if you think your account's been compromised.
6. Acceptable use
Don't use this site to submit false information, impersonate someone else, attempt to interfere with how the site or its tools function, or extract content at scale for a competing product. Don't use the Q&A assistant to try to get it to give advice it's designed to decline, that's a waste of both our time.
7. Intellectual property
The site's design, text, and the free tools themselves belong to SmallClaimsHQ. Anything you generate with a tool, like a demand letter built from your own words, is yours to use. Official California Judicial Council forms and statutory text referenced on this site remain public government material, we don't claim ownership of those.
8. No warranty
This site and everything on it is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including accuracy, completeness, or fitness for a particular purpose. We don't guarantee that any calculation, deadline estimate, or generated document is error-free, or that using it will lead to any particular outcome. Court fees, statutory rates, form numbers, and income thresholds change, and we may not have updated every reference the moment that happens.
9. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent the law allows, SmallClaimsHQ and its founders aren't liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of this site, including a missed deadline, a rejected filing, or a lost case, even if we were advised of the possibility. If a court finds a limitation here unenforceable for a particular claim, our total liability for that claim is limited to the amount you paid us for the service giving rise to it, or $100, whichever is greater. This section doesn't limit liability where the law doesn't allow it to be limited.
10. Third-party links and services
This site links to official government resources (like courts.ca.gov) and uses a small number of third-party services to operate (Google Analytics, Anthropic's Claude API, Mailjet). We don't control those sites or services and aren't responsible for their content, availability, or how they separately handle your data. See their own terms and privacy policies.
11. Changes to these terms
We may update these Terms as the product changes, especially once the paid filing service launches. We'll update the date at the top when we do. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the update.
12. Governing law
These Terms are governed by California law. Any dispute not otherwise resolved will be handled in the state or federal courts located in California.
13. Contact
Questions about these Terms: [email protected].