To determine whether or not you have to sue the delinquent client out of state you need to determine what your state's long arm statute permits with respect to jurisdiction over out of state parties. There are limited scope and broad scope  long arm statutes. Some rely on the significant contacts test to greater degree than others to determine if your home state is the proper forum. There was a lengthy discussion on this board about this subject last May. If you do a search it may answer a lot of your questions. If you sue the client in his state you will have far less problems with a jurisdictional challenge than if you sue the client in your home state.

Is filing out of state more expensive than filing in state? It almost certainly is. However, this is a tax deductible cost of doing business. The issues are how badly do you want to be paid, and how much do you dislike people walking all over you. I have found that in almost all of the instances in which I have advised the delinquent client of the potential for a suit and sent a copy of the complaint with it, the prospective suit is enough to obtain payment. In most cases it was not necessary to actually follow through with serving and filing the suit. In those cases in which you receive a less than acceptable response from the client, you have to be prepared to file the suit. In the one instance in which this approach has not worked, the client was bankrupt. There also may be a problem with a client that has gone out of business. In this case you will undoubtedly win the suit, but the judgment will not be paid because you can not get blood out of a stone. So you need to determine whether the client is still in business at the time you advise the client that you are preparing to file suit.

Another approach that I have found helpful is to have the client commit to a written payment date on his title search order. If he will not do this, then this is probably a potential problem client. If he is willing to print a payment date on his title search order, it is usually only a matter of reminding the client of his written committment to get him to pay you when he is late with payment.

With respect to new client's it is generally a good idea not to extend too much credit to them until they demonstate a timely payment pattern.

It is also a good idea to diversify the services you provide beyond title abstracting. If you provide services in other areas it may help you to make up the cost of a suit. It also gives you greater flexibility in negotiating the prices of your title searches.