If you were injured because of someone else’s negligence, a lawyer to sue someone in California can help you determine whether you have a valid personal injury claim. Depending on your situation, you may be able to recover compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages.
Before filing a lawsuit, an attorney can evaluate the strength of your case, estimate its potential value, explain legal costs, and determine whether pursuing legal action is worthwhile. Not every dispute requires a lawsuit, and some smaller claims may be handled without an attorney through California’s small claims court.
Key Takeaways
- California divides civil cases by amount: small claims, limited civil, and unlimited civil.
- In small claims you cannot have a lawyer represent you — and if you are the one suing, you cannot appeal the result.
- In limited and unlimited civil you can have a lawyer, and a corporation must.
- The cost question has two different answers depending on whether the claim is for an injury.
- The deadline runs while the decision is being made, and for an injury claim it is shorter than for most contract disputes.
California Sorts Disputes by Amount
The California Courts describe civil cases as “divided into two main categories generally by how much money they involve,” with small claims sitting underneath as an alternative route for the smallest disputes.
- Small claims. Available where an individual is suing for “$12,500 or less.” A business entity such as a corporation can sue for up to “$6,250” in small claims.
- Limited civil. “Limited civil cases are cases for $35,000 or less.”
- Unlimited civil. “Unlimited civil cases are cases for over $35,000.”
Where a claim is for $12,500 or less, an individual may choose between small claims and limited civil. That choice is not a formality, because the two courts work differently in ways that matter more than the filing fee.
In Small Claims, You Cannot Have a Lawyer
This is the part that resolves the search for a large share of the people making it.
On small claims, the California Courts state it flatly: “Can not have a lawyer represent you.” On limited civil, the position is the opposite — “Can have a lawyer represent you, but you must pay for the lawyer” — and a business entity has no choice in the matter, because “A business entity, like a corporation, must have a lawyer.”
There is a second difference that gets far less attention and deserves more.
In small claims, “A plaintiff cannot appeal.” If you bring the case and lose, that is the end of it. In limited civil, “Either side can appeal.”
Put those together and small claims is a trade: speed and simplicity, in exchange for representing yourself and accepting the outcome. For a modest, straightforward dispute that trade is often worth making. For a disputed claim where the facts are genuinely contested, giving up both representation and any appeal is a significant thing to do by default rather than by decision.
The Cost Question Has Two Different Answers
“How much does a lawyer charge to sue someone” has no single answer, because it depends on what kind of claim it is.
For most civil disputes — a contract, a debt, a boundary, a business disagreement — representation is paid for by the client as the work is done. The Courts put it plainly in describing limited civil: you can have a lawyer, “but you must pay for the lawyer.” That is a real constraint, and it is why the amount at stake has to be weighed against what pursuing it costs.
Injury claims are generally handled differently. They are usually taken on a contingency-fee basis, which means there is no upfront cost and attorney’s fees are owed only out of a recovery. Fees and case costs are separate items, and how costs are handled is set out in the written agreement rather than assumed.
That difference is why the arithmetic people do when deciding whether to pursue a contract dispute does not transfer to an injury claim. The question stops being whether the claim is worth the fees and becomes whether the claim is viable at all.
Whether an Injury Claim Is Worth Filing
Most injury claims are resolved with an insurer and never become lawsuits. Filing happens when something specific makes it necessary rather than as a default escalation, and what causes that is set out on our California car accident lawsuit page, which covers the circumstances that push a claim into court and which court hears it.
What is worth saying here is only this: the decision is about the specific obstacle in the way of resolving a claim, not about how strongly anyone feels about the other side.
The Deadline Runs While You Decide
Whichever tier a dispute belongs in, the limitation period is unaffected by the deliberation.
An injury to a person runs on a two-year period, set by Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. Other kinds of civil claim have their own periods, and anything involving a public entity carries an additional and far earlier step that has to be taken before a lawsuit is possible at all.
None of that is affected by how long a decision takes to reach, which is the practical reason to establish the deadline position at the start rather than at the end.
Talk to a California Injury Lawyer
If the dispute is an injury claim, the first question is not what it is worth but whether anything stands in the way of resolving it — and what the deadline is while that gets answered.
Vaksman Khalfin, PC acts for injured people across California, with Alan D. Khalfin leading that work from the San Mateo office. The first consultation is free. Wider material sits in the California personal injury guides.
Reviewed by Alan D. Khalfin, Partner and Managing Attorney, Vaksman Khalfin, PC (admitted in California). Last reviewed: 10/16/2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, and in small claims you have to. The California Courts state that in small claims court you "Can not have a lawyer represent you." In limited and unlimited civil you may have one, and a business entity such as a corporation must.
It depends on the kind of claim. For ordinary civil disputes the Courts note that you can have a lawyer in limited civil "but you must pay for the lawyer." Injury claims are generally different: they are usually handled on a contingency-fee basis, with no upfront cost, attorney's fees owed only out of a recovery, and case costs treated as separate items under the written agreement.
An individual can sue for $12,500 or less. A business entity such as a corporation can sue for up to $6,250. Above those amounts the case belongs in limited civil, which covers claims of $35,000 or less, or unlimited civil for anything over $35,000.
Not if you brought the case. The California Courts state that in small claims "A plaintiff cannot appeal." In limited civil, "Either side can appeal." That difference is worth weighing before choosing the simpler route.
For most civil disputes that is partly an arithmetic question, because representation is paid for as the work is done and the amount at stake has to justify it. For an injury claim the arithmetic is different, so the question becomes whether the claim is viable rather than whether it is affordable to pursue.
It follows the amount involved, on the same tiers as any other civil case. Where an injury is more than minor the claim will usually exceed the small claims limit, which puts a lawyer back on the table as an option rather than ruling one out.
Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 sets a two-year period for an injury to a person. Other kinds of claim run on their own periods, and where a public entity is involved there is an earlier step that must be completed before a lawsuit can be filed.
In limited and unlimited civil, yes — the California Courts state that a business entity such as a corporation must have a lawyer. In small claims a business entity can appear without one, but is limited to suing for $6,250.
