South Dakota Guide and File for Small Claims: How the UJS Portal Works

South Dakota's Guide and File tool walks you through a series of questions and spits out completed court forms at the end. It saves time — but it does not file your case, and that misunderstanding has left people thinking they sued when they never actually did.

What Guide and File Does

Guide and File is a free web-based interview tool on the UJS website (ujs.sd.gov), built by Tyler Technologies. For small claims, it generates pre-filled PDF versions of the forms you need — primarily UJS-008 (Plaintiff's Statement of Claim) and UJS-232 (Case Filing Statement).

You answer prompts about the parties, the dispute amount, what happened, and the county. The system uses your answers to populate the correct fields on each form. At the end, you get a printable packet.

What Guide and File Does Not Do

This is where people get tripped up:

It does not file your case. Completing the interview doesn't submit anything to the court. Your claim is not officially started until the Clerk of Courts in the correct county receives your printed, signed forms along with the filing fee.

It does not handle e-filing for pro se litigants. Electronic filing through Guide and File is available only for authorized attorneys and specific case types. Self-represented small claims plaintiffs must file on paper.

It does not calculate or collect your fee. You need to bring or mail a check or money order payable to "Clerk of Courts" separately. Fees range from $24.84 to $42.84 depending on your claim amount.

It does not serve the defendant. After your case is docketed, the Clerk of Courts handles service by sending certified mail to the defendant. Guide and File has no role in that process.

How to Use It Properly

1. Go to the UJS Guide and File page and select the small claims interview.
2. Answer each prompt carefully — especially the county, the defendant's full legal name, and the claim amount.
3. At the end, download and print the generated PDF forms. Print single-sided, in black ink.
4. Sign each form by hand.
5. Deliver or mail the signed forms to the Clerk of Courts in the county where you're filing, along with your filing fee.
6. Your case begins when the clerk accepts and dockets it — not when you finished the online interview.

When to Skip Guide and File

If you're comfortable reading a form and filling it in yourself, downloading the blank forms directly from the UJS Pro Se Forms page works just as well. Guide and File adds a helpful interview layer, but the output is the same set of forms you'd complete manually.

For the complete filing process, including what happens after the clerk dockets your case, see the South Dakota Small Claims Filing Guide.

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