Can you get your Wisconsin court filing fee waived?
Wisconsin decides fee waivers using public benefits, or a judge's decision on your affidavit. There is no published income cutoff, so no calculator can tell you the answer. What follows is the actual standard a judge applies.
Ways to qualify in Wisconsin
- Public benefits. Receiving Wisconsin Works (W-2), Medicaid, FoodShare (SNAP), SSI, County relief, Veterans benefits, or Indigent legal services counts toward qualifying, often without any income showing at all.
- Inability to pay. You explain your income, expenses and debts on a sworn form, and the court decides whether paying the fee would leave you unable to cover basic needs. This route has no income cutoff.
No fixed percentage. Benefits qualify you automatically; otherwise the court weighs household size, income, expenses, assets and debts, with the federal guidelines as one factor.
What to file
Wisconsin uses the Petition for Waiver of Fees and Costs (Affidavit of Indigency) (CV-410A). File it at the same time as your petition or response, not after.
This page explains how Wisconsin decides fee waivers. It is not legal advice, and it cannot tell you how a judge will rule on your case. Virdix is a document preparation service, not a law firm.
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