When a client comes to you for the first time to commence a divorce proceeding, and the client is a resident of multiple states, you may be faced with the question of whether there should be a "race to the courthouse." You may ask yourself whether the outcome for your client will be better in your home state or in another. Are you, and therefore, they, best served by bringing suit in your home state, where the courts, laws, judges and customs, are more familiar to you, or not?

Family law is statewide. The law may be different. The practice may be different. The procedure may be different. And, in the case of domestic relations laws, procedure is substance, because the procedure can completely change your client's divorce and its consequences. In this article, I compare select aspects of the domestic relations laws of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.