Trustcasting Podcast

What happens when a son of an NYPD homicide detective who worked on Capitol Hill and always felt pulled toward public service goes to law school specifically to be a prosecutor, picks up and moves right around the corner from Yankee Stadium to be in the thick of it in the Bronx DA's office, spends five and a half years trying violent felonies — felony assaults, robberies, burglaries, attempted murders — then spends nearly a decade defending New York State as an Assistant Attorney General in White Plains, and then one day looks around at the layers of bureaucracy and the pace of AI adoption inside government and decides the now-or-never moment has finally arrived? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Joseph Scolavino, founder of Scolavino Law in Westchester, about what to say — and more importantly what not to say — when an officer asks if you've been drinking tonight, why your instinct as a human being to answer that question is exactly what the training is designed to exploit, and why saying officer I'd like to speak with an attorney is enough to shut down a line of questioning immediately. Joseph also explains what insurance adjusters are trying to accomplish when they call right after an accident sounding friendly, why you need to keep your answers about your injuries vague until you actually know what the injuries are, and what to do the moment surprise divorce papers arrive — which is get an attorney immediately and touch nothing, because the spouse who filed has already been through the entire emotional arc and is planning while you are still processing. They also discuss why family and matrimonial law has a financial structure unlike any other area of practice — flat fee criminal work pays out on day one, personal injury contingency aligns the attorney's incentive with the outcome, but hourly divorce billing means attorneys are actually disincentivized to resolve things early — how to probe a potential divorce attorney for whether their business model is mediation and resolution or churning hours, why the first six months of a solo practice are the hardest financially and what the cash flow logic is behind building criminal and family work alongside a personal injury pipeline, and what a lifetime on the basketball court taught him about thinking on your feet in a trial when you know your case cold but the courtroom stays predictably unpredictable. Joseph Scolavino is the founder of Scolavino Law in Westchester, New York, practicing personal injury, criminal defense, and family and matrimonial law. Connect with Joseph Scolavino: skolavinolaw.com Westchester, New York Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Joseph Scolavino 00:56 Almost twenty years inside government — what finally pushed him to open his own firm 02:00 AI adoption in government versus the private sector — and why timing felt right 03:30 Filing incorporation papers before Christmas 2025 and launching on his fifteen-year bar admission anniversary 04:37 Starting with zero clients — reaching out through the Rolodex of every attorney he had ever settled with 05:21 The attorney who wanted to pay it forward — how a big case and a wave of introductions followed 06:37 BNI networking chapter and reconnecting with an opposing counsel who became a referral source 09:37 Coming from a law enforcement family and going to the Bronx DA's office straight out of law school 10:47 Day one in the courtroom — arraignments, misdemeanors, felonies, grand jury, and the Rackets Bureau 12:40 The jump from the Bronx DA to the Attorney General's office in White Plains — staying in government but switching to civil 14:54 Three core practice areas — personal injury, criminal defense, and family matrimonial law 15:45 Crash course in family law through a three-year litigious divorce that went all the way to appeal 17:00 How the 18B public defender panel provides steady criminal volume while PI cases mature 18:43 The cash flow logic of building a new practice — flat fee criminal work and retainer family work supporting the contingency pipeline 19:03 Have you been drinking tonight — what you should actually say 19:50 You are not obligated to answer any question beyond pedigree information — and why that is hard for humans 21:40 Officer I'd like to speak with an attorney — how four words shut down the questioning 23:22 The insurance adjuster who calls right after an accident sounding friendly — what they are actually trying to do 24:46 Just got served surprise divorce papers — what is the first thing to do 26:00 Why acting on emotion after being served is how people dig holes 27:40 Why the spouse who filed is already way ahead — they have been through the emotional arc and are planning #JosephScolavino #ScolavinoLaw #TrustcastShow #WestchesterAttorney #CriminalDefenseNY #DivorceAttorneyNY #PersonalInjuryNY #DWIDefense #FamilyLawNY #NewFirmLaunch

What happens when someone who built one of the country's first home inspection companies in the 1980s, flipped over 70 real estate deals, spent nine years in boot camp under a mentor with a photographic memory who taught him everything from tax planning to financial structuring, sold his first firm to a private equity fund in 2014, and now co-leads a practice with $840 million under advisement decides that the most important thing he can do with four decades of knowledge is make sure business owners and physicians stop handing over to the IRS money they were never required to give? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Ken Himmler, co-founder of One Wealth Map, about the silent campaign that major financial institutions run against Roth conversions — not because Roth conversions are bad for clients, but because when a client converts a million-dollar IRA and pays 25% in taxes, the advisor's fee base just dropped by $250,000 — and why the online Roth calculators at Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard are built with a fundamental flaw that will give you the wrong answer every time. Ken explains why your IRA is not worth what it says on the statement because there is a tax lien on it, what a 664 trust did for a client with charitable intent that allowed him to convert a million-dollar IRA completely tax free, and why running a Roth analysis for just husband and wife misses two of the three scenarios that actually matter — what happens when the first spouse dies and files single, and what happens when the kids inherit an IRA under Secure Act 2.0 and face a ten-year distribution window that can push them into a 65% combined federal and state bracket. They also discuss why the C Corp is systematically ignored by CPAs despite never having produced double taxation in 42 years of use when structured correctly, why Apple sits on $900 billion in retained earnings without paying the 20% surcharge that CPAs warn about, why most business owners are working with the equivalent of a little league coach when they need a pro-level team, what multi-tiered structuring actually looks like and why it requires both a C Corp and an S Corp working together, how the Monte Carlo simulation that every major financial institution relies on is programmed with a conflict of interest baked in to keep you spending less and leaving assets under management longer, and what Fitnomic — launching in late 2026 — is designed to do that Mint, Monarch Money, and every other financial aggregator has failed to accomplish. Ken Himmler is the co-founder of One Wealth Map, a financial planning and tax strategy firm with $840 million under advisement, serving business owners, physicians, and high-income professionals nationwide. Connect with Ken Himmler: onewealthmap.com One Wealth Map — contact form for Fitnomic AFM waitlist Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Ken Himmler 00:42 The Rothinator — why major financial institutions run a silent campaign against Roth conversions 01:30 The fee math — why an advisor loses 25% of their fee base the moment a client converts 02:30 The IRA as a house with a mortgage — why you don't actually own the number on your statement 03:13 The 664 charitable trust that allowed a million-dollar IRA conversion at zero tax 04:08 Why does converting a Roth mean losing assets under management for the advisor 05:29 Devil's advocate — when does a Roth actually not make sense and who are the 30% 06:31 The financial propaganda campaign — why money stays in IRAs 79% longer than anywhere else 07:41 A profitable business owner who never has any money — what is actually going wrong 08:45 My CPA files my return and says I'm fine — why that is not enough 09:30 Tax planning versus tax preparation — what Joe the CPA told Ken about his monthly process 10:41 The biggest expense of your life is not your house — it is income tax 11:01 Structure first — why the S Corp default is costing business owners 13% in FICA taxes 12:15 The C Corp objection — double taxation and retained earnings — and why both are wrong 13:30 Apple's $900 billion in retained earnings and the annual projection that prevents the 20% surcharge 14:30 Multi-tiered structuring — C Corp holding company plus S Corp operating company 15:15 KPIs, measurement, and Peter Drucker — the second problem after structure 15:45 Upgrading your coaching as your revenue grows — little league to the pros 16:40 The $10 million business still using the same CPA from day one — what they are missing 17:03 What the first meeting with a new client actually looks like — culture fit before financials 18:00 The cost benefit analysis — charging $25,000 to save $100,000 as the basis for a relationship 18:58 The Rothinator versus a standard Roth calculator — why the online tools give you the wrong answer #KenHimmler #OneWealthMap #TrustcastShow #RothConversion #Rothinator #TaxPlanning #BusinessOwnerTaxStrategy #PhysicianFinancialPlanning #Fitnomic #TaxFreeRetirement

What happens when an Army brat who moved every three years, played soccer for the Black Knights at West Point, met her husband while they were both JAG attorneys at Guantanamo Bay, clerked for a Virginia Court of Appeals judge, and then built a practice that sits at the exact intersection of personal injury trial work and appellate law — where being a better trial attorney makes you a better appellate attorney and being a better appellate attorney makes you a better trial attorney? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Juli Porto, appellate and personal injury attorney at Blankingship and Keith, about the single most common reason appeals fail before they even start — error was never properly preserved at trial — and why an objection that is timely but makes the wrong argument is just as fatal as no objection at all because you have to give the judge the specific opportunity to correct themselves before the appellate court will review it. Juli explains why she has to ask every trial attorney who brings her a fresh appeal the same first question: can I even help you? She also walks through what good trial attorneys should be doing throughout the entire litigation — not just at verdict — to ensure the case is set up for appeal if needed. They also discuss why an Uber or Lyft accident is so much more complicated than a standard crash and why respondeat superior liability is still an unsettled issue across the United States, how she helped preserve a $10 million gift of stock as separate property in a divorce appeal by showing the trial judge had sufficient evidence to find it was truly a gift, her role as appellate counsel on the $9 million UVA shooting settlement, the ride-hail sexual assault case where the driver was not criminally prosecuted but she combed through the civil evidence and got past a demur when no one else had taken the time to look, why the other side's insurance company calling you right after a crash to settle fast is good for them and bad for you, and why missing the 30-day notice of appeal deadline in Virginia by even one day requires an emergency motion before the appellate court. Juli Porto is an appellate and personal injury attorney at Blankingship and Keith in Fairfax, Virginia, taking appellate consultations and referrals from trial attorneys at other firms as well as handling her own PI cases. Connect with Juli Porto: Email: [email protected] Direct line: 571-789-0877 bklawva.com Fairfax, Virginia Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Juli Porto 00:38 Growing up as an Army brat, West Point, soccer for the Black Knights, and what constant moving taught her about understanding people 01:09 Clerking for Judge Rousey Alston at the Virginia Court of Appeals and meeting her husband at Guantanamo Bay 01:58 Appellate practice explained — not just after trial but consulting during trial to set up the record 03:33 Consulting with other attorneys during litigation — preserving error, making the right arguments 04:37 Personal injury trials as the bread and butter at trial level 04:55 Someone just got badly hurt in a crash — the first three things to do in the next 48 hours 06:25 The insurance company calls right after the accident and promises to settle fast — what to tell them 07:20 Your medical case can't get ahead of your legal case — why the timeline is longer than they want you to think 08:34 The client who already signed forms and turned over records — how badly did they damage their case 10:13 Withdrawing all authorizations as the first move when getting involved after the client spoke to the insurer 11:08 Hit by an Uber driver — why that case is far more complicated than a regular crash 11:16 Respondeat superior and why the employer versus independent contractor question is unsettled nationwide 12:55 When it makes sense to go after just the driver's insurance instead of fighting Uber 14:16 How you set up a personal injury case to successfully appeal it 15:09 The most common problem when trial attorneys bring her a fresh appeal — error was never preserved 15:40 How to preserve error — timely and specific objection giving the judge the chance to fix it 16:51 When error was not preserved — post-trial motions and whether they can save the appeal 17:46 Sometimes the judge just says you are right and fixes it — and the appeal becomes unnecessary 18:26 Ineffective assistance of counsel on the civil side — why that is not something you can fix on direct appeal 19:52 New evidence on appeal — what after-discovered evidence actually requires and why it is rarely available on the civil side 21:02 Hidden discovery and fraud on the court — how that gets handled on an indirect appeal 22:04 The other side is appealing my win — what does that mean for my money and my life right now #JuliPorto #BlankingshipAndKeith #TrustcastShow #AppellateLaw #VirginiaAppealAttorney #PersonalInjuryAppeal #ErrorPreservation #UberLyftAccident #VirginiaPersonalInjury #AppellateConsultant

What happens when an attorney who failed the bar exam by one point, appealed the result, won, and liked to say her first client was herself — then spent four years managing over a hundred active files at a workers' compensation and motor vehicle accident firm before the pivot that her father still occasionally questions — discovers that she can have more impact on injured people's lives by helping the attorneys who represent them understand what AI can actually do than she ever could trying cases herself? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Angela Ventro, account executive at Supio covering New England and upstate New York, about why PI firms that say they tried AI and it did not work were almost always burned by bad implementation rather than bad technology, what actually happens when an attorney sits with two thousand pages of records the night before a deposition looking for treatment gaps and undiagnosed injuries, and why a scattered trail of complaints about photophobia, fatigue, and migraines across three different providers over several months is exactly the kind of connection no single human reviewer would make but that AI flags immediately — which is how a $25,000 soft tissue case became a $250,000 TBI settlement. Angela also explains how Supio's integration with Westlaw is the only one of its kind in the personal injury AI market, putting medical record analysis and legal research in the same place rather than across two screens. They also discuss how Supio helped Tor Hormon Law secure a $495 million verdict against Abbott Labs by processing over 43,000 pages of records and 80-plus depositions — and why the managing partner specifically called out paralegal mental health as one of the benefits, because reading about injured babies all day in gross detail wears on a person in ways that are hard to quantify but very real — how defense firms and insurance companies are already using AI to bury smaller plaintiff firms in discovery and why Supio can answer a non-standard interrogatory in under a minute, why your conversations inside a closed enterprise AI system are likely protected as attorney work product while your client chatting with ChatGPT about their own case probably is not, and why paralegals using Supio are now comfortably handling ten more cases each without the firm hiring additional staff. Angela Ventro is an account executive at Supio, the AI platform purpose-built for plaintiff's personal injury firms, covering New England and upstate New York. Connect with Angela Ventro: Email: [email protected] supio.com LinkedIn: Supio Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Angela Ventro 00:51 Failing the bar by one point, winning the appeal, and her first client being herself 01:59 Four years managing over a hundred active files at a workers' comp and motor vehicle firm 03:12 The pivot from practicing law to selling AI to law firms — and what her dad said about it 04:22 Why the human element and client relationship side always felt more natural than the practice 05:19 When a PI firm says we tried AI and it did not work — what actually happened 06:15 Implementation and support on day 40 versus day one — the real barrier to adoption 07:14 What a PI attorney loses every time they personally review 400 pages of records instead of using AI 08:00 Treatment gaps, undiagnosed injuries, and the ten PM deposition prep experience 09:00 How Supio finds TBI complaints scattered across three providers that no single reviewer connects 09:56 Client stickiness and the referral network — why catching an undiagnosed TBI changes the relationship 10:42 The objection — I am better than the AI and I will find the pearls myself 11:15 Force multiplying yourself — 10 pearls in 10 cases instead of one pearl in 10 hours 11:45 Five years of training Supio specifically on plaintiff's personal injury law — doctor lawyer on your staff 12:33 How a trial actually works — NDA first, then upload, then regular checkpoints and success criteria 13:55 The aha moment — Supio finding something on a lawyer's own client file they were not aware of 15:14 Is Supio doing legal thinking or something else — firm level, case level, and document level intelligence 16:07 The Westlaw integration — why nobody else in the PI AI market has a research partner of this size 17:46 Putting case law and medical records in the same place — drafting a response to a summary judgment motion 18:49 The hallucination objection — the lawyer who got cited from the bench and had his license threatened 19:45 Courts are not saying don't use AI — they are saying use it irresponsibly and we will come for your license 20:42 Implementation — does the firm have to stop taking cases to set it up 21:45 Onboarding team, customer success, and training as new staff and new features arrive #AngelaVentro #Supio #TrustcastShow #LegalAI #PersonalInjuryAI #PIFirmTechnology #LegalTech #TBISettlement #WestlawIntegration #PlaintiffsAttorneyAI

What happens when a girl who grew up in poverty in Indiana, watched her grandfather walk into a rehab facility after his second stroke and get wheeled out in a wheelchair with a bag of clothes soaked in urine and feces because they kept passing him by at meals while he dozed in his room, becomes the first person in her family to attend graduate school, spends years as a prosecutor in South Florida learning how to try cases before she ever touches civil work, and then builds her own Milwaukee firm in 2025 dedicated entirely to one mission — holding nursing home corporations accountable when something goes horribly wrong? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Kristen Lojewski, founder of Lojewski Abuse and Injury Law, about how to know something is wrong at a nursing home before it is too late — ask for the care plan, visit at unpredictable times, attend the interdisciplinary team meetings — and why families almost always do see the warning signs but get talked out of them by the facility until it is too late to undo the damage. Kristen explains why Wisconsin caps wrongful death damages for adults at $350,000 and pain and suffering at $750,000, why that makes a million-dollar total exposure feel like a rounding error to a chain corporation, and why the legislature is essentially telling families that an elderly person's life is worth less than if the same thing happened across the border in Illinois. They also discuss how nursing homes are increasingly burying binding arbitration agreements deep inside admission paperwork given to families during the most emotionally pressured moments of their lives — and why signing one strips your right to a jury trial and public record — what sexual assault inside memory care facilities actually looks like and why residents with dementia are specifically targeted because perpetrators believe nobody will believe them, how facilities use the phrases just aging and unavoidable injuries as standard defenses even when they have not implemented a single reasonable safety measure, why the defense firm on the other side gets paid every time they answer an email and has every incentive to run out the clock on a surviving elderly spouse, and why Kristen's firm will never recover more than what the family recovers. Kristen Lojewski is the founder of Lojewski Abuse and Injury Law in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, serving families whose loved ones were harmed or killed by nursing home neglect or abuse. Connect with Kristen Lojewski: protectwi.com or loyeskilaw.com Phone: 414-999-3771 Instagram: @attorneykristen Milwaukee, Wisconsin Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Kristen Lojewski 00:44 Big buddy and little buddy — watching her grandfather deteriorate in a rehab facility and passing away in September 2020 02:35 From South Florida prosecutor to nursing home plaintiff lawyer — what the criminal courtroom taught her that civil lawyers miss 04:15 Something feels off about my mom's nursing home but I can't point to anything — where do I start 05:30 Request the care plan, visit at unpredictable times, attend the interdisciplinary team meetings 06:59 What are the warning signs families miss until it is too late 07:30 Families usually do see the warning signs — the problem is the facility reassures them out of acting 08:24 When the nursing home says everything is fine — how to push back and when to escalate 10:44 The nursing home says those injuries are just part of aging — is that ever actually true 11:24 Send your loved one to an independent hospital if you are concerned — what independent providers actually document 13:12 If your loved one has dementia and can barely communicate — does that make it harder to pursue a case 14:18 Sexual assault in nursing homes and memory care facilities — why residents with dementia are specifically targeted 15:52 How often is this actually happening — and how much goes unreported 17:11 Who is legally allowed to file a claim in Wisconsin 17:20 Adult children, spouses, parents — and why extended family do not have a wrongful death claim 18:14 Wisconsin caps wrongful death at $350,000 for adults — the hardest conversation she has with families 19:29 Total exposure for a nursing home wrongful death case — $1.1 million and why that is nothing to a chain corporation 20:01 The $750,000 pain and suffering cap and why the legislature undervalues elderly lives 21:23 What the first phone call with a family actually looks like — holding space before gathering facts 22:30 Honest conversations about damages caps, medical record review, and whether to try pre-suit resolution 23:15 Contingency fee — the firm advances all costs and never recovers more than what the family recovers #KristenLojewski #LojewskiAbuseLaw #TrustcastShow #NursingHomeAbuse #NursingHomeNeglect #ElderAbuseLaw #WisconsinNursingHomeLaw #WrongfulDeathWisconsin #ArbitrationNursingHome #ElderLaw

What happens when an ER physician who fled Iran during the revolution as a child, survived Scud missiles and bombings across multiple cities, made it through medical school in Belize, delivered babies as the only doctor in a 25-mile radius in a tiny Minnesota town called Olivia, switched into emergency medicine, and spent years getting lectured by his billing partners about every critical care encounter he was under-documenting — finally picks up a Python programming hobby he had since high school, calls his AI friend at AMD, and spends three to four months building a tool that is not a medical scribe, not a transcription app, and not a copy of anything else on the market? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Dr. Mohammad Chelehmalzadeh, ER physician and founder of Teb IQ, about why emergency room doctors are interrupted every 30 seconds, why their notes end up as skeletons of what they should be, and why an experienced physician who just saved someone's life after 20 minutes of CPR ends up billing at the same level as a strep throat visit. Dr. C explains medical decision making — MDM — and why the 2023 Medicare billing change made the thought process the driver of revenue rather than the length of the note, why thinking about stroke and then ruling it out without ordering a CAT scan is a billable event if you document it, and how his app increased his personal critical care billing rate from 8-9% to 22% and pushed his users from level three and four billing to four and five across the board. They also discuss the app's live evolving patient story that gets reanalyzed with every addendum and changes the final assessment as the diagnosis shifts, the HIPAA architecture that redacts the 18 protected variables before the story ever touches an LLM, the clinical scoring module that auto-calculates HEART score and other tools without the physician leaving the screen, the AI critique feature that reviews your entire patient encounter and tells you what you missed — the shoulder X-ray that was ordered but never mentioned, the tetanus shot with no follow-up — and why Dr. C refused to let surgical residents use the full version of the app because cognitive development in residency is too important to hand over to a machine. He also shares why getting into Epic costs over $100,000 before a single hospital ever sees your app, and what his path to scale actually looks like. Dr. Mohammad Chelehmalzadeh is an emergency medicine physician and founder of Teb IQ, an AI-powered clinical documentation and billing optimization platform being piloted across hospitals in Connecticut. Connect with Dr. Chelehmalzadeh: Email: [email protected] Phone: 610-945-8337 tabscribe.com Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Dr. Mohammad Chelehmalzadeh 00:46 The billing conversation that started everything — Dr. C's notes were billing at strep throat level after saving a life 02:30 Learning to code again with ChatGPT and writing Python billing cheat files that spread across the department 03:10 The AMD AI friend who said this is a perfect use case — three months of nightly iteration 04:10 The first web version took five minutes per note — then ten seconds 04:56 The director noticed critical care billing jump from 8% to 22% — and looked the other way 05:10 Becoming a company because the hospital group needed liability separation 05:45 Over 40,000 notes processed and users billing five to six percent more in critical care 06:20 Why this is not a scribe — it is a Swiss Army knife that keeps the chaos organized and timestamped 07:04 What it is like to be interrupted every 30 seconds in the ER and why notes become skeletons 08:00 The live evolving patient story — the AI reanalyzes the whole encounter with each addendum 09:30 The sign-out note feature — dictating an entire shift handoff with one record button 10:00 The supervisory note for PAs and NPs — the right blurb every time 11:38 The shift handoff as an analogy for losing tokens between Claude conversations 12:03 HIPAA compliance — redacting all 18 protected variables before anything touches the LLM 15:25 How the encounter stays linked to the right patient without PHI — diagnosis, age, sex, room number 16:30 End to end encryption, business associate agreements, and why no recordings are stored 17:58 The legal question — how do you protect yourself when data clears after 30 days 19:02 The gray zone around PHI data retention and physician responsibility for what they paste into the chart 20:21 Teb IQ — the name comes from the Persian word for medicine and Ibn Sina the father of modern medicine 21:02 Fleeing Iran during the revolution, surviving the Iran Iraq war, escaping through Australia to Canada and eventually Belize #DrMohammadChelehmalzadeh #TebIQ #TrustcastShow #EmergencyMedicineAI #ClinicalDocumentationAI #MedicalBillingAI #AIHealthcare #EMRDocumentation #CriticalCareBilling #PhysicianAITool

What happens when a young female attorney who worked as a paralegal before law school, spent time on the defense side, and then crossed to the plaintiff's side realizes that the women calling her from Wall Street banks and hedge funds are not just victims of harassment but are trapped in situations where the very person controlling their promotions, their performance reviews, and their entire career trajectory is the same person who assaulted them — and that the most powerful tools she has are not always the lawsuit but the non-disparagement clause, the neutral reference, and the non-disclosure agreement that follows the harasser for the rest of his professional life? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Christine Hintze of Phillips and Associates about what grooming actually looks like before the harassment becomes undeniable — wine subscriptions, comments about skin, offers to buy a pied-à-terre in the city — and why clients almost never recognize it while they are inside it. Christine explains why quid pro quo sexual harassment is not invalidated by a moment of apparent consent when the person with the power over your career is the one initiating, why the gray area around one night that felt consensual and then a cold shoulder and a reassignment is actually where most of these cases live, and what New York City's strict liability standard for supervisor harassment means in practice compared to the rest of the country. They also discuss the hedge fund associate who stayed at her job for months after being sexually assaulted by her supervising partner because she sent money home to her parents and helped her sisters — and who ended up in an outpatient treatment facility before Christine stepped in, negotiated continued pay through administrative leave, and eventually settled for $3 million — the C-suite executive fired after reporting quid pro quo harassment by the CEO whose company's entire defense was a performance complaint, the Kanye West Gender Motivated Violence Act case involving their client Jen Ann and a 2010 strangulation on a music video set in front of an entire production crew who said nothing, why the EEOC rescinding its 2024 harassment guidance changed the law not at all, and why contingency fee representation at a 60-40 split means nobody needs money to start a case. Christine Hintze is an attorney at Phillips and Associates in New York City, focusing on sexual harassment and employment discrimination in finance and high-stakes professional environments. Connect with Christine Hintze: phillipsandassociates.com New York, New York Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Christine Hintze 00:38 What happens the moment a client first calls — fear, shame, and the courage it takes to pick up the phone 02:21 These situations almost always involve someone in a position of authority — and it can start subtly 03:00 Grooming on Wall Street — wine subscriptions, skin care products, and offers to buy an apartment 04:00 Evidence clients think they don't have — Google Maps location data, subscription confirmations, and text threads 05:14 A client who thought she had no case — what creative evidence gathering actually looks like 05:37 The gray area of consent when your boss controls your promotions, your reviews, and your future 07:00 Quid pro quo sexual harassment explained — and why a relationship that felt consensual at one point does not close the case 08:00 New York City strict liability — if a supervisor did it, the company is liable, full stop 09:12 Protecting the career more than the lump sum — what really matters to women who have spent decades getting where they are 09:28 Non-disparagement clauses, neutral references, and positive references as the most powerful settlement terms 10:15 I reported internally and HR said they'd investigate — did I make a mistake 11:50 I still have to go to work every day and sit across from this person — what are my options 12:01 The case where Christine stepped in immediately and negotiated a resignation with a settlement 13:00 Living month to month in Manhattan — how to advise a client who cannot afford to lose income 15:44 Should I stay at work a few more weeks to gather evidence or leave immediately 17:30 Client mental health always comes first — when staying is not worth it 18:24 What the first few weeks look like after someone hires Christine — information gathering without re-traumatizing 20:27 The $3 million hedge fund settlement — a client on FMLA leave in an outpatient facility after months of reporting to her attacker 22:10 Negotiating continued pay through administrative leave while the case resolved 23:26 Is it hard to stay dispassionate — and why the trusting relationship is actually a strength not a liability #ChristineHintze #PhillipsAndAssociates #TrustcastShow #SexualHarassmentLaw #WallStreetHarassment #WorkplaceDiscrimination #NewYorkEmploymentLaw #QuidProQuo #KanyeWestCase #GenderMotivatedViolenceAct

What happens when a young attorney who started his career as a guardian ad litem — the volunteer voice for children placed in the system with no one fighting for them — takes $25,000 of his own money, teams up with his business partner Victor, opens a personal injury firm three months before a global pandemic, outgrows his first office by mid-year, moves into 10,000 square feet by October, and builds a staff of 75 people across South Florida, Tampa, and Chicago while also opening six restaurants, a 501(c)3 animal shelter, and a sports agency representing bare knuckle fighters and NFL players — all while learning that hiring on personality beats hiring on resume every single time? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Jeremy Dover, managing partner of Demesmin and Dover, about what to do in the first 24 hours after an accident — call the police, get checked out, and do not talk to any insurance company including your own — and why Florida's no-fault system means you have exactly 14 days to unlock $10,000 in personal injury protection before the other side can offset it against whatever they owe you. Jeremy explains why the insurance company sending you a check right after an accident is not a favor but a strategy to get you to sign away your right to everything you are actually owed, what bad faith actually means in practice and why it is more often laziness than malice, and what happens when you reject a written proposal for settlement and then recover less than 75% of that offer at trial. They also discuss why soft tissue injuries without broken bones have reached seven-figure verdicts, how Florida's 2023 House Bill 837 changed the comparative fault framework so that being more than 50% at fault now means recovering nothing, the casino analogy a mediator used to explain trial risk — you can take the money on the table or throw it on black and spin the wheel — why litigation fatigue is one of the most deliberate tactics insurance companies use to grind down claimants until they accept less, what it means to build a culture where people are happy to come to work rather than a machine that just churns out money, and why hire slow and fire fast is the lesson that cost the most to learn. Jeremy Dover is the managing partner of Demesmin and Dover, a full-service personal injury and multi-practice law firm based in South Florida with offices in Tampa and Chicago. Connect with Jeremy Dover: demesmindover.com South Florida, Tampa, and Chicago Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Jeremy Dover 00:42 Starting the firm with $25,000 each during the pandemic — burn the ships and never look back 02:09 From guardian ad litem to personal injury — how fighting for kids shaped how he fights for accident victims 03:30 Settlement versus trial — weighing finality against risk and making sure clients understand both 05:18 An accident just happened — what to do in the first 24 hours 06:00 Florida personal injury protection — the 14-day window to unlock $10,000 and why missing it costs you 06:56 The other driver's insurance company is already calling — should I talk to them 07:59 I feel fine after the accident — do I still need to go to the doctor 08:45 Why Jeremy steers clients away from the hospital unless absolutely necessary 09:11 What mandatory bodily injury coverage means — and why Florida does not require it 10:52 The other driver has no insurance but may have assets — how do you investigate and is it worth it 11:45 Florida's homestead protection — why you cannot take someone's home even with a judgment 12:28 Wage garnishment — the math on why it often costs more than you recover 13:55 The insurance company sends a check right away and says just sign it — should you 15:10 Why early settlement offers exist — minimizing risk before you know what you are actually owed 15:59 Can you ever exceed the policy limits of the other driver's insurance 17:17 What bad faith actually means — clear liability, clear damages, no response, and a failure to act in good faith 19:28 What possible justification does an insurance company have for acting in bad faith 20:52 How do you decide whether to settle or go to trial — and whose decision is it ultimately 22:30 The Hard Rock Casino analogy — take the money on the table or spin the wheel one time 23:43 How long do personal injury cases actually take from start to finish 25:08 The most common tactics insurance adjusters use to lowball accident victims 26:10 Litigation fatigue — deliberately drawing out cases until clients accept less 26:50 Florida's proposal for settlement statute 768.79 — what rejecting a written offer can cost you 29:28 Is a lowball written offer from the insurance company bad faith — why it is a one-way street #JeremyDover #DemesminAndDover #TrustcastShow #PersonalInjuryFlorida #FloridaCarAccident #InsuranceBadFaith #PIProtection #SoftTissueInjury #ProposalForSettlement #FloridaPersonalInjuryLaw

What happens when a seventh grader buries a time capsule in 1993 saying he wants to play football as long as his body allows, join the army, and become an attorney — and then 25 years later his teacher digs it up and sends him a note saying he did exactly that — after commanding troops in combat as a field artillery officer in Iraq, redesigning a cavalry troop from scratch, deploying to Europe, writing the military criminal jurisdiction playbook for the entire European theater at V Corps, and then building a solo firm in Kentucky where his children asked to stay because they had never met people as kind anywhere else in the world? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Joey Comley, founder of The Soldier's Advocate, about the single most dangerous thing running through a soldier's head the moment CID shows up or a command pulls them aside — the belief that the truth will set them free — and why every attorney who has ever represented someone in a criminal context would agree that it is dramatically harder to help a client who has already made a statement. Joey explains what an Article 15 actually is and why getting one does not automatically mean getting busted down in rank, when a soldier should use their free appointed military counsel and when they need to pick up the phone and call private counsel, and how military police have exactly the same legal authority to lie to a suspect that civilian police do. They also discuss the SHARP case where the alleged victim had told witnesses she knew how to get any leader removed from her supervision by filing a complaint — a case that had to be unwound through a board proceeding, a reconsidered 15-6 investigation in Mississippi, the Department of the Army Suitability Evaluation Board, and the desk of the Chief of the National Guard Bureau — how security clearance investigations interact with criminal cases and why losing a clearance can cost a transitioning soldier 20 to 30% of their annual earning potential, the joint terrorism task force interview where Joey had to physically stop his client from talking on no less than four or five occasions, the bench trial where the judge started packing up his things before the verdict and Joey's response from the podium that prompted an immediate not guilty on all charges, and why the most experienced NCOs in any formation almost always had at least one Article 15. Joey Comley is the founder of The Soldier's Advocate, a military criminal defense and federal investigation firm based in Kentucky, practicing worldwide under the UCMJ. Connect with Joey Comley: thesoldiersadvocate.com Phone: 270-360-0142 Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Joey Comley 00:55 The first thing running through a soldier's head when CID knocks — and why it gets them in the most trouble 01:45 The truth will not set you free — what the investigator's version of events actually is 02:36 The joint terrorism task force interview — physically stopping a client from talking four or five times 03:54 From field artilleryman to judge advocate — what a seventh grade time capsule predicted 05:22 ROTC scholarship, freedom from dad, and a first duty station in Schweinfurt Germany 06:28 Iraq, Operation Iraqi Freedom 2, and redesigning a cavalry troop from scratch 07:20 The funded legal education packet — why his boss said he had no shot and why he was wrong 08:46 What a typical client looks like and how they find him — zero advertising budget 11:10 The firm is intentionally one of one — why he does everything himself 12:23 Military criminal defense is about 80% of the practice 13:25 Does being willing to go to trial change how opposing counsel treats you 14:24 How attorneys poke at each other and why rising above it brings the managing partner to the table 15:59 A soldier finds out they're under investigation — the two or three moves that determine everything 17:20 Free military legal counsel — what it covers and what it cannot do 19:44 Are military prosecutors actually after the truth — and does it differ from civilian practice 21:37 A prosecutor who called after the preliminary hearing to say he no longer had probable cause 22:45 The bench trial — the judge packing up his things, the statement from the podium, and a not guilty from the bench 24:33 Can military police lie to a suspect the same way civilian police can 24:52 Article 15 — what it actually is, what it means, and why rank loss is not automatic 27:22 When should a soldier use appointed counsel and when should they call private counsel #JoeyComley #TheSoldiersAdvocate #TrustcastShow #MilitaryCriminalDefense #UCMJ #ArticleFifteen #SecurityClearance #SHARPcase #MilitaryLaw #JudgeAdvocate

What happens when a serial entrepreneur who wore a suit to elementary school at age eight, built a successful software company, invested his time and network into an early stage idea before anyone else believed in it, and then walked away from his own exit to go all in on a platform built around one simple but radical premise — that the most powerful thing you can do for someone who is struggling is connect them with another human being who has already been through exactly the same thing and come out the other side? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Derek Lundsten, President and CEO of LifeGuides, about why Employee Assistance Programs were well-intentioned 25 years ago and are now compliance tools with a 3% utilization rate that leave 97% of the workforce without any meaningful support, why the pandemic didn't just reveal the gap in mental health services but blew it wide open in a way that has driven healthcare premiums up 20% annually and created a provider shortage that clinical care alone cannot solve, and what peer support actually looks like when it is built on lived experience, HIPAA compliance, and a marketplace that lets you filter by age, demographics, religion, career path, and language — including Haitian Creole for a distribution center workforce that no EAP had ever been able to reach. They also discuss how LifeGuides recruits guides — targeting Facebook groups of people who have been through a specific experience and finding that the desire to help others is always far greater than expected — what a first session actually looks like from login to video call, why employers never see individual conversations but do receive blinded utilization data, how one large publicly traded education company quantified a 3% improvement in employee retention from LifeGuides and used that to anchor an ROI calculation, and why the math on $100 per year for unlimited family access versus $150 per therapy session changes the conversation with every CFO who asks why they need it. Derek Lundsten is the President and CEO of LifeGuides, a peer-to-peer support platform serving employers, health plans, and associations across the country. Connect with Derek Lundsten: lifeguides.com Social: @LifeGuides across all platforms Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Derek Lundsten 00:40 Meeting LifeGuides founder Mark at an entrepreneur's group and deciding to invest time and network before money 01:20 Exiting his last software company to go all in on commercializing LifeGuides 01:49 What LifeGuides actually is — a peer-to-peer matching marketplace for lived experience in any life challenge 03:43 Most clients are companies — why LifeGuides went B2B instead of direct to consumer 04:30 The stigma and access problem that existed before COVID and the demand explosion that followed 05:59 When an employer says we already have an EAP — the real answer 07:21 What EAP stands for, why it was created, and how it became a compliance tool instead of a support tool 08:42 COVID demand skyrocketed, EAPs couldn't keep up, medical coverage absorbed the overflow — and premiums followed 09:42 Crisis versus proactive support — and why the system has swung too far toward clinical care 10:24 Stigma as the reason EAP utilization sits at 3% nationwide 11:53 How LifeGuides recruited its first guides — Facebook groups, Alzheimer's Association ads, and the discovery that people want to help 13:10 How Dr. David Hester's team vets guides — credentials, HIPAA training, active listening curriculum, and financial incentives 14:44 What happens when an HR leader reads that only 21% of employees feel their company actually cares about them 16:13 Why doing well while doing good is not a contradiction — stakeholders versus shareholders 17:00 ROI for the CFO — $100 per year per family versus $150 per therapy session times ten sessions 18:30 Retention data — one client quantified a 3% improvement in employee retention directly attributable to LifeGuides 19:40 How capping healthcare premium increases translates to millions in financial value 20:14 What changes first when a company adds LifeGuides to its benefit stack — and what takes longer 21:38 Walk me through what actually happens from login to the end of a first session 23:01 Can employees return to the same guide — unlimited access and ongoing accountability 24:04 Can a guide on one topic refer to a guide on a different topic — the multi-guide model for complex lives 25:05 Employer confidentiality — individual conversations are never seen, only blinded utilization rates 25:54 How attribution works — quarterly client success reviews and business outcome alignment 26:25 Someone dealing with a sick parent, struggling kid, and demanding job all at once — three guides simultaneously #DerekLundsten #LifeGuides #TrustcastShow #EmployeeWellbeing #PeerSupport #MentalHealthAtWork #EAP #EmployeeBenefits #WorkplaceWellness #HRLeadership

What happens when an employment attorney who spent years defending some of the biggest employers in the country at the world's largest employment law firm finally sits in a trial he genuinely doesn't believe in, realizes he can't keep doing it, and crosses to the other side — where he gets to choose his own cases, fight for the workers those companies were trying to defeat, and never charges a client a single dollar until a check lands in his firm's mailbox? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Mike Guasco, founder of Guasco Law in California, about the single most important thing to do in the first 48 hours after something bad happens at work — document everything, write it down while it's fresh, and do it in a way that shows it was contemporaneous — and why going to HR is not optional even though HR is not there to protect you. Mike explains the difference between a hostile work environment in the legal sense, which has to be hostile because of a protected class, and a boss who is simply a horrible human being, which is unfortunately not illegal in California or anywhere else. He also walks through why filing with the EEOC or CRD and asking them to investigate is one of the most common mistakes employees make — because the agencies are so underfunded they almost never take cases, and then the defense attorney waves the no-finding letter around in court as if the government exonerated the employer. They also discuss what a contingency fee actually is and how it works in practice, why cases can take anywhere from six months to five years depending on which path they take, how Mike gets a right-to-sue letter in about three minutes by clicking a single button on the CRD website rather than asking for an investigation, the housing discrimination trial where he had to explain an extremely rare medical condition to a jury that initially understood exactly why the HOA said no — and then won a significant verdict anyway, why political views are a protected class in California but are balanced differently than other protected classes, and what his definitive legal guide on the rights of transgender and non-binary employees in California was actually designed to accomplish. Mike Guasco is the founder of Guasco Law, an employment and housing discrimination firm serving clients throughout California. Connect with Mike Guasco: Email: [email protected] guascolaw.com Initial consultations always free Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Mike Guasco 00:46 Spending years defending major employers and then walking out of a trial he didn't believe in 01:31 Something bad just happened at work — what do I do in the first 48 hours 02:30 Why you shouldn't just call your cousin the lawyer — the value of a specialist referral 03:30 How do I know when a bad situation at work has crossed into illegal territory 04:21 My boss is just an ass and makes my life miserable — is that a hostile work environment 05:44 Hostile work environment has a legal definition — it only applies when tied to a protected class 06:17 Political views as a protected class in California and why there is a balancing test 07:47 My boss says it was a performance issue — how do I tell if that's real or a cover story 08:04 Watching for trends — performance reviews, assignment patterns, and comparators 09:14 A white male who was demoted when a DEI initiative brought in someone above him — is that discrimination 10:17 Why Mike would not personally take that case even though it may be legally valid 14:19 I'm still employed but things are getting worse — do I have to wait until I'm fired to take action 16:08 The fear that going to an employment lawyer will ruin your reputation and your career 17:14 Attorney-client privilege protects even potential clients who never sign with the firm 17:51 What should I never say to HR — and should I even go to HR 18:07 HR is not your friend — and that is exactly why you should go anyway 19:52 If this were your son — would you tell him to go to HR or go to a lawyer first 21:03 What to document and the right way to do it — Google Docs, journals, and contemporaneous records 22:21 Walk me through what happens from the moment someone calls you to when the case resolves 24:57 The routes a case can take — early resolution, mediation, arbitration, and full court litigation 25:58 What does it cost to hire you — the contingency fee model explained simply 27:24 The one exception — restraining order work on an hourly retainer 29:21 How long do these cases usually take — six months to five years depending on the path 29:55 The difference between filing with the EEOC or CRD versus just suing 31:33 The immediate right-to-sue button — how to get the letter in three minutes without asking for an investigation #MikeGuasco #GuascoLaw #TrustcastShow #EmploymentLawCalifornia #WorkplaceDiscrimination #HostileWorkEnvironment #HousingDiscrimination #EmployeeRights #ContingencyFee #CaliforniaEmploymentLaw

What happens when a law student who worked almost full time through law school clerks in the Baltimore City homicide division, gets to know the real people behind the characters in The Wire, learns what it actually takes to build a murder case from the inside, then spends five years on the prosecution side before crossing to the defense table — where 12 years and 30 jury trials later he still gets coolest when everyone else in the room is in full panic mode? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Kurt Nachtman, partner at Silverman Thompson in Baltimore, about the single most important thing to do in the first 24 hours after an arrest — shut up, be polite, and say the word lawyer — why Miranda rights are not triggered until custodial interrogation occurs and how much questioning can legally happen before you get there, and why a .09 on the breathalyzer is not the end of the case if you know where to look for sleep apnea, medical conditions, and procedural defects in how the officer read the DR-15. Kurt also walks through the ghost gun case where a firearms enthusiast who accidentally shot himself in the leg beat the charge when Kurt realized that the statute was so poorly written the state had to prove a negative — and the young prosecutor called afterward still not understanding what happened. They also discuss what happens when a professional license is on the line — why a nurse, paramedic, or daycare operator should never try to respond to a licensing board letter without a lawyer and why the complaint that brought them to your door is almost never what gets you — why insurance companies keep internal databases on which lawyers actually try cases and how that changes what they offer, the personal injury verdict that came in four times the last settlement offer after Kurt turned his client misidentifying her own injured leg into proof that she wasn't exaggerating, why the good neighbor is consistently the hardest insurance company to negotiate against and runs to the one yard line before making a reasonable offer, and what it was like as a 32-year-old newly minted private attorney to solve an unsolved suspicious death and get a family some measure of closure. Kurt Nachtman is a partner at Silverman Thompson in Baltimore, Maryland, practicing criminal defense, professional license defense, and personal injury. Connect with Kurt Nachtman: Phone: 410-385-2225 Email: [email protected] silvermanthompson.com Baltimore, Maryland Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Kurt Nachtman 00:38 What five years as a Baltimore City prosecutor did to the way he fights for defendants 01:18 Clerking in the homicide division as a law student — cell phone evidence, DNA, and the real people behind The Wire 03:20 My client just got arrested in Maryland — what are the most important decisions in the next 24 hours 03:35 Shut up — why talking to police almost never helps and why they're allowed to lie to you 05:08 But what if you're just being polite and explaining yourself 05:13 Polite but firm no — the right words out of your mouth and the right words in your text 06:40 Don't destroy evidence — why deleting text messages often makes everything worse 07:13 Miranda — when does it actually trigger and what is custodial interrogation 08:42 DUI and Miranda in Maryland — why you don't get your rights read on a traffic stop 10:00 Public defender versus private attorney — caseload, choice, and making lemonade out of lemons 11:39 When someone thinks a minor charge isn't serious — why the internet changed everything about that assumption 12:25 Expungement in Maryland and why a trespassing charge can follow you into a security clearance 15 years later 13:40 The ghost gun case — a firearms enthusiast shoots himself in the leg and beats the charge 14:00 Read the rule — how a poorly drafted statute fell apart when the state had to prove a negative 17:31 The young prosecutor called afterward and still didn't understand — how the lesson was delivered 18:32 Building a firm from two people to 11 over 12 years and then walking away to join Silverman Thompson 19:19 Trying a $2.5 million breach of contract case on two weeks notice with a hole in the calendar 20:37 The best parts of no longer running your own business — no clogged bathrooms, just trying cases 21:19 DUI — someone blows a .09 and thinks it is already over 22:07 Sleep apnea, medical defenses, and probable cause defects that most DUI attorneys miss 23:23 The teacher who had two drinks and didn't know he had sleep apnea — and how that became a half dozen cases 24:21 If you have a professional license — CDL, nursing, contractor — how does a DUI change the math 25:35 Should you refuse the breathalyzer in Maryland — and how the law changed two years ago #KurtNachtman #SilvermanThompson #TrustcastShow #CriminalDefenseMaryland #BaltimoreAttorney #DUIDefense #ProfessionalLicenseDefense #MirandaRights #GhostGun #PersonalInjuryTrial

What happens when a girl who grew up watching her single mom choose between $2 of gas and a loaf of bread in the Chicago suburbs goes to law school in Miami without knowing a single person to network with, takes the first job she can get at a small boutique in Woodstock, Illinois, discovers a passion for fighting for parents and children in the moments that matter most, and 22 years later leads a six-attorney firm that offers discounts to single moms and military members, serves as a guardian ad litem appointed by Kane County judges, and is still fighting to be the kind of change she never had? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Jenet Pequeno, founder of a Chicagoland family law firm and Illinois Super Lawyer, about what to do the moment you find out your spouse has filed for divorce — checking bank accounts, running credit reports, and watching for home equity lines of credit you never signed — what happens when a spouse has been secretly moving marital assets into a son's trust and how you sue the son to get it back, and why the single most important thing a parent can do if they're still living in the same house is not leave before getting a parenting schedule in writing. Jenet explains the difference between Illinois's old language of custody and visitation and the current framework of allocation of parental responsibilities, why alienation is like a cancer in a custody case that can flip a parent from primary to every-other-weekend, and why she tells attorneys for mothers planning to ask for 75% when they were doing 50-50 before filing — give me a reason, because what in the best interest standards says I should change it now? They also discuss the 17 best interest factors Illinois judges weigh when both parents want to be primary, why a mother who wants to move to Florida to live with a boyfriend she met online two months ago is asking a guardian ad litem to watch three children under five lose their father to a phone call, the case where a military father won primary residency just short of trial after allegations escalated from a one-night stand to a rape claim with no prior report, the social media behaviors that quietly destroy custody positions, and why the law is easy but people are hard. Jenet Pequeno is the founder of a Chicagoland family law firm serving parents and children across the collar counties of Northern Illinois. Connect with Jenet Pequeno: Phone: 847-616-0980 Northern Illinois — Chicago collar counties Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Jenet Pequeno 00:50 Growing up in a single parent household — choosing between $2 of gas and groceries, and why that drives every case 02:04 Licensed since 2004 — going straight into whatever job she could get and discovering family law 03:06 My spouse just filed for divorce — what do I do first 03:17 Checking bank accounts, running credit reports, watching for home equity lines of credit and forged signatures 04:34 The spouse who spends months planning before filing and moves all the assets first — how often does that happen 05:11 Moving marital property into a son's trust — suing the adult child to recapture it 06:29 The person who is left with nothing after the other spouse moves out — what the court can do on an emergency basis 07:30 Freezing accounts like an IRS lien — what happens once a judge hears the story 08:26 Is moving money before a divorce actually a crime in Illinois 09:14 How the financial misconduct taints the rest of the case — the tie goes to the innocent party 09:55 How long does an Illinois divorce actually take when kids are involved — Supreme Court Rule 922 and the 18-month rule 10:50 The old days of five-year custody battles with kids aging out of being minors 11:49 What the 15-month timeline looks like when there are no children 12:32 Both parties agree — do you still need a lawyer 13:31 The law is easy, people are hard — why even agreed divorces can fall apart over boilerplate language 14:31 The word custody is gone in Illinois — what allocation of parental responsibilities actually means 15:38 Parenting time versus primary residency — and why you should never leave the house before getting a schedule 17:17 The 17 best interest factors an Illinois judge weighs when both parents want to be primary 17:47 Alienation — the A word — what it is, what it costs, and why parents who schedule soccer during the other parent's time are playing with fire 19:44 Education, socialization, and private tutoring as non-statutory advantages 21:28 Do mothers still have an advantage in Illinois family court 21:41 Twenty-two years ago — the mother who could sit on her hands and still get sole custody 22:49 Gender bias still exists — what Jenet has seen as recently as a couple of years ago #JenetPequeno #TrustcastShow #IllinoisFamilyLaw #DivorceAttorney #CustodyLaw #GuardianAdLitem #ChildCustodyIllinois #ParentingTime #FamilyLawChicago #AlienationInCourt

What happens when a kid from the Arizona-Mexico border who grew up throwing rocks from his grandmother's backyard into Mexico, drops out of Stanford Law to follow armed Minutemen through the Sonoran Desert with a video camera, comes back, finishes his degree, and builds one of Phoenix's most feared immigration and criminal defense firms — one with 1,200 Google reviews, 50 people on staff, a worksite raid defense that became local counsel on the federal civil rights lawsuit that took Joe Arpaio down, an argument that made it to the Arizona Supreme Court on behalf of a client whose prior attorney told him the plea would be fine, and a book that ended up required reading at Harvard Law? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Ray Maldonado — Abogado Ray — about what is actually happening to immigrants under the current administration, why the claim that ICE is only targeting criminals is a thousand percent false, and what to do in the first hour after a family member is detained. Ray explains the difference between detention and deportation, what a U visa is and why most people don't know they qualify, what cancellation of removal requires — 10 years, qualifying relatives, and extreme and unusual hardship — and why the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is structurally different from immigration courts in a way that matters enormously for anyone trying to get a fair hearing. They also discuss what a motion to suppress evidence actually means and why winning on the government's constitutional violation is not a technicality but a vindication of the Bill of Rights, the Miguel Angel case where Ray took a worksite raid defense to not-guilty on all counts and the client eventually won a green card, why showing up to court scared that you'll be deported in handcuffs that same day is the most common sign of misinformation he sees, and why leading with passion and service rather than money has resulted in horses, five cars, and a multi-million dollar house while doing work that most people assume has no money in it. Ray Maldonado is the founder of Abogado Ray Law Firm in Phoenix, Arizona, practicing immigration law and criminal defense. Connect with Ray Maldonado: Phone: 602-910-4040 Social: @AbogadoRay on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Ray Maldonado 00:51 Dropping out of Stanford Law to follow armed Minutemen through the Sonoran Desert with a video camera 01:46 Being an immigration lawyer in the second Trump administration — winning a federal habeas corpus today 02:58 The habeas corpus case — bond hearings being denied for people with no criminal history and five US citizen kids 04:24 The claim that ICE only goes after criminals — why that is a thousand percent false 05:23 ICE shows up at your home — what to do right now 06:44 My family member was just detained — what do I do in the first hour 07:30 The difference between being detained and being deported and what options exist for each 08:20 Protections people didn't know they had — U visas, challenging the NTA, and the government's burden of proof 09:21 If someone has been here 15 years with US born kids — are they automatically protected 10:15 The 10-year magic number and cancellation of removal explained 10:44 Fear of talking to a lawyer — what attorney-client privilege actually protects 11:27 A DUI or minor drug charge that suddenly triggers deportation — how does that happen 12:30 Why non-citizens need both a criminal defense attorney and an immigration attorney 13:20 Growing up on the Arizona-Mexico border — throwing a rock from grandma's backyard into Mexico 14:19 Defending immigrants in Arizona state court and why it is harder than defending a citizen 15:23 What it means to win at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and why it matters for someone in Eloy Detention 16:44 Why the Ninth Circuit is different from immigration courts — and why every administration dislikes it 17:03 Motions to suppress evidence — using the government's own constitutional violations to win cases 18:54 Rapid fire — baseball or law, naming his sons Ray Emerson and Stokely Daniel, toughest courtroom opponent 20:45 The one thing a scared client says that immediately tells Ray they're misinformed 21:37 The Miguel Angel case — a worksite raid defense, a not-guilty on all counts, and a path to citizenship 23:45 How mission-driven practice leads to financial success — 50 staff, horses, five cars, and Japan trips 25:22 How a single worksite raid became local counsel on the federal civil rights case that took Arpaio down 26:32 Marketing a 14-year firm — 1,200 Google reviews and referrals compounding every day #AbogadoRay #RayMaldonado #TrustcastShow #ImmigrationLaw #DeportationDefense #CriminalImmigration #ICERights #HabeasCorpus #ArizonaImmigrationLawyer #KnowYourRights

What happens when a trial attorney spends 13 years inside the SEC building the exact kinds of cases that keep executives and general counsels up at night — including the securities fraud case against Volkswagen and its CEO for deceiving US bond investors during the emissions scandal, a case that earned him a framed picture of a carrion hawk from his colleagues after Judge Charles Breyer's opening remarks — and then crosses to the other side of the table to defend the companies and individuals the SEC is coming after? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Dan Hayes, partner at Venable LLP in Chicago, about what to do in the first 24 hours after the SEC contacts your company, the critical difference between receiving an informal document request and a formal subpoena, and why the executives who assume the SEC will figure out they did nothing wrong and just go away are operating on a dangerously incorrect assumption. Dan explains what a Wells Notice is and why it is not too late to change the SEC's mind once you receive one, what cooperation actually means in SEC terms versus simply complying with a subpoena, and why the most costly mistake companies make in the early stages of an investigation is failing to get experienced counsel immediately. They also discuss why the SEC can and does bring strict liability charges where intent is not required and good faith is not a defense, how the Volkswagen case required nearly two years of investigative work including testimonies taken from employees in foreign countries before the charges could be filed, why the strategy of fighting everything and giving the SEC as little as possible almost never works because these are smart lawyers from top firms who know what they are doing, what electronic discovery looks like now compared to sitting in a cold warehouse in South Bend sorting through boxes, and the single most important thing a company can do right now to reduce its SEC risk — starting with tone at the top. Dan Hayes is a partner at Venable LLP in Chicago, focusing on SEC and government investigations, commercial litigation, and white collar matters. Connect with Dan Hayes: Email: [email protected] Phone: 312-820-3434 venable.com Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Dan Hayes 00:48 Prosecuting the SEC's case against Volkswagen and CEO Martin Winterkorn — what it was like from the inside 01:34 The sheer volume of fraud that happens at major companies — and learning quickly not to be naive about it 02:31 Tom Petters, Bernie Madoff, and the Ponzi schemes that came before 03:05 Why he left the SEC after 13 years — timing, age, and the decision to switch sides 04:08 How Venable found him and why the culture and the chance to help build the Chicago office sold him 06:39 The SEC just contacted my company — what do I do in the first 24 hours 07:36 The critical difference between an informal document request and a formal subpoena 08:42 My lawyer told me never talk to the SEC without counsel — does that mean ever 09:49 Is there anything I can do during an active investigation to influence the outcome 10:43 How cooperation — real cooperation — differs from simply complying with a subpoena 12:07 Why his experience inside the SEC gives him an edge on the other side — knowing why they ask what they ask 13:14 What a Wells Notice is and whether it is already too late to change the outcome once you receive one 14:51 The most costly mistake companies make in the early stages of an SEC investigation 16:23 Why the public gets frustrated when companies pay fines but executives walk — and why that frustration is valid 17:57 What the SEC can and cannot do — fines and industry bars but not criminal prosecution 19:26 How electronic discovery has changed — from cold warehouses in South Bend to AI-assisted review 21:21 What cooperation with the SEC actually means and when it is not the right move 24:04 How often senior executives genuinely don't know what lower-level employees are doing 26:48 How the Volkswagen case was ultimately built — two years of investigation and overseas testimonies 28:07 Judge Breyer calling the SEC carrion hawks at the first hearing — and the framed picture that followed 30:03 If a company could do only one thing right now to reduce its SEC risk 31:41 Companies assume good intentions mean the SEC will go away — why that is wrong 32:24 Strict liability charges — where intent is not required and good faith is not a defense 33:27 The strategy of fighting everything and giving the SEC as little as possible — has it ever worked 35:39 The most effective defense lawyers he faced when he was at the SEC — what made them effective 36:35 When does Venable get called in — before a rule is passed, after a subpoena arrives, or mid-litigation #DanHayes #VenableLLP #SECDefense #TrustcastShow #SECInvestigation #SecuritiesFraud #WhiteCollarDefense #VWEmissionsScandal #WellsNotice #MarchmanAct

In this episode of the Trustcast Show, host Zane Myers sits down with Adam Wasserman, Managing Partner of Education Justice Law Group and co founder of ExamSoft, the bar exam software used in almost every state. Adam’s story is remarkable. After being told he would never ride a bicycle, play a musical instrument, or graduate high school due to ADHD, dyslexia, and major learning challenges, he spent childhood labeled lazy and not capable. Today, he is a special education attorney who personally attends IEP meetings, has represented over 1,000 families across 150 California school districts, and helped build technology that supports millions of students. What You’ll Learn • The moment at age 22 when Zig Ziglar’s voice changed everything • Growing up being told you are a Chevy Chevette instead of having potential • The school psychologist who destroyed his faith in public education • The silver haired former nun who said you will be my success story • What meta consciousness is and how it helped him break through ADHD and dyslexia • The metronome method 3.5 hours a day for 6 months that transformed his life • How music and consistent rhythm taught him to stop thinking and start listening • Developing ExamSoft after his typewriter broke during the bar exam • Taking the LSAT from bottom 10 to 15th percentile to top 15th percentile • The twin brother who became a doctor while others called Adam a failure • Why he personally attends IEP meetings instead of delegating • What an IEP is vs a 504 plan and why you should never accept a 504 as a consolation prize • How special education law creates federal obligations for school districts • Fee shifting statutes, when districts pay your attorney fees if you win • Running a social justice law firm with sliding scale fees • Compensatory education, getting funding for years of services the district did not provide • What happens when a child reads at 2nd grade level in 11th grade • Why Adam believes disabilities can become superpowers • Studying philosophy in Jerusalem and awakening his spiritual antenna • Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning and finding your why • Chris Voss and connecting with people who will not listen • Why Adam believes we all have a purpose bigger than consuming and acquiring The Big Idea • Winning in life is not about labels, it is about purpose • When you connect to why you are here, usually through service to others, everything changes • Adam’s disabilities became his superpower because they gave him empathy, drive, and insight to help families navigate a broken system Connect with Adam Wasserman Education Justice Law Group • Website: https://www.educationjusticelaw.com • Address: 26565 W Agoura Rd, Ste 200, Calabasas, CA 91302 Phone Numbers • San Fernando Valley, LA and Ventura Counties: (818) 570 8024 • East and West Side of Los Angeles: (323) 677 5587 • Northern California and Central Coast: (831) 240 4415 • Statewide Toll Free and San Diego County: (833) 340 9164 Online • LinkedIn: Adam Wasserman (educationjusticelawgroup) • Avvo Profile: Adam Wasserman, Clients’ Choice Award 2022 Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:03 Zig Ziglar You Can Be Anything You Want to Be 01:34 Meta Consciousness The First Ray of Sunlight 02:59 Born to Win What Does That Mean for People Like Us 03:52 I’ve Become Unstoppable 05:00 Growing Up with Learning Challenges Teachers Who Gave Up 06:22 The School Psychologist Who Called Him a Chevy Chevette 08:11 The Silver Haired Nun You Will Be My Success Story 08:52 The Alter Ego Voice Block It Out and Keep Going 09:38 What Is Meta Consciousness Can Anyone Harness It 11:23 The Metronome 3.5 Hours a Day for 6 Months 14:11 How Discipline Emerged from ADD 16:16 Creating ExamSoft The Software That Changed Everything 17:33 The Bar Exam Typewriter Breaking His Mission Born 18:28 Were Your Parents Around to See This Transformation 19:08 Labels That Still Sting I’m 16 Still Getting Over Middle School 20:08 Your Disability Helped You Understand How to Help Everyone 22:07 People Who Said Adam You’re Gonna Be Great 22:33 The Twin Brother Called Dr Wasserman Since Age 8 23:16 What Is an IEP Meeting And Why You Can Bring a Lawyer 26:12 IEP vs Gen Ed The Suburban with 95,000 Miles 28:00 The Financial Side How Families with No Money Get Help 29:16 Fee Shifting Statute Districts Pay If You Win 29:39 You Saved My Child’s Life What That Feels Like 31:32 School Districts and Limited Resources 33:41 Rapid Fire IEP vs 504 Plan Which Do Parents Confuse More 36:36 Why You Should Never Take a 504 as a Consolation Prize 38:17 Favorite Thing Learned Studying Philosophy in Jerusalem 40:33 Chris Voss Connecting with People Who Won’t Listen 41:30 Closing #SpecialEducation #ADHD #Dyslexia #LearningDisabilities #EducationLaw #IEP #TrustcastShow

What happens when a pediatric ICU nurse who spent years in high-stakes home health settings — training nurses on ventilator troubleshooting, running competency assessments for tracheostomy patients, and then investigating unexpected deaths and abuse allegations as a healthcare administrator — decides that the place she can do the most good is not inside a healthcare company but inside a courtroom, helping attorneys understand what the records are actually telling them and what the records they don't have are hiding? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Angela Barker, founder of Covenant Legal Nurse Consulting in San Antonio, about what happens when an attorney opens 4,000 pages of medical records without a clinical background, why the most dangerous mistake is not misreading what's there but failing to notice what isn't, and what a legal nurse consultant actually produces at the end of a review that a paralegal simply cannot. Angela walks through the wrongful death case of a woman who delivered a stillborn and then bled to death at three distinct missed checkpoints — where the attorney's case turned on a partial autopsy report that stopped at the lungs and never reached the reproductive organs that mattered — and explains how she recognized immediately that the report was incomplete and what it took to get the full record. They also discuss the competency case where a single piece of admission documentation — the granddaughter signing as medical power of attorney — proved the patient could not have knowingly transferred property and won the case, the case that looked like negligence until the records showed three dozen documented refusals of care from the patient herself, why home health and pediatric cases are fundamentally different from hospital negligence because there is no backup team and the nurse is alone making life-or-death decisions in someone's living room, how she locates and vets expert witnesses including checking license status and publication history, and why the 400,000 government recoupment demand she brought down to zero through documentation recovery and outside-the-box sourcing is the case she is most proud of. Angela Barker is the founder of Covenant Legal Nurse Consulting, serving attorneys and home health agencies nationwide. Connect with Angela Barker: LinkedIn: Angela Barker, RN San Antonio, Texas (serving clients nationwide remotely) Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Angela Barker 00:42 Running investigations into patient deaths and abuse allegations as a healthcare administrator 01:41 How unexpected death investigations worked in home health — was the nurse present, did they follow emergency protocols 02:51 The competency assessments and lab simulations she ran before sending nurses to high-acuity patients 03:36 Burning out after COVID — staffing shortages, no rate increases, always on call — and the pivot to legal nurse consulting 04:48 Starting the business in 2022, the mentorship program, and joining BNI to build referrals 05:17 Learning to sell to attorneys instead of case managers — the mindset shift required 06:31 An attorney just got 4,000 pages of records — what is the first thing they should do before opening the stack 07:46 What a medical chronology actually is and how it structures the timeline of care 08:23 The most dangerous mistake attorneys make reviewing medical records without clinical background 09:12 What she looks for first in any case — timeline, who was involved, what led up to the injury, what is missing 10:36 The most common missing documents that can make or break a case — autopsy reports, medication records, fetal heart rate reports 12:02 What the attorney receives at the end — the medical chronology, opinions on standard of care, definitions, research 13:32 How long a review takes — approximately 100 pages per hour and what affects that estimate 15:13 From initial conversation to delivery — the intake process, HIPAA compliant SharePoint, contracts, revisions 16:43 The types of cases she sees most and which are most medically complex 18:57 What makes home health and pediatric cases fundamentally different from hospital negligence 20:50 How she locates and vets expert witnesses — LinkedIn searches, license checks, disciplinary history, CV and fee schedule 22:36 What she gives an attorney that a paralegal cannot — knowing what is missing, medication interactions, specialty protocols 24:33 The competency case — the granddaughter signed as medical power of attorney and that single fact won the case 25:54 The wrongful death case — a stillborn delivery, three missed bleeding checkpoints, and a partial autopsy that stopped at the lungs 28:10 Was the partial autopsy intentional concealment #AngelaBarker #CovenantLegalNurseConsulting #TrustcastShow #LegalNurseConsultant #MedicalMalpractice #MedicalRecordsReview #HomeHealth #HealthcareCompliance #MedMal #NurseConsultant

What happens when a licensed marriage and family therapist who grew up in Los Angeles watching pastors, doctors, nurses, and high achievers give everything they had to the people around them while quietly neglecting themselves decides that the most important thing she can do is teach people how to refill before they run completely dry — and then extends that same mission to third graders who are still young enough to build those habits before they ever need to unlearn the bad ones? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Ash Reynolds, founder of Modern Day Wellness Group, about the difference between regular tiredness and actual burnout, why compassion fatigue is particularly insidious in caregiving and service professions because the people most affected love what they do and would never think to slow down, and why the client who looks like a shining star on the outside — thriving academically, active in student government, playing sports — can be the one most deeply struggling in private. Ash also explains why pastors who preach vulnerability from the pulpit are still people who need rest, and why community is supposed to hold them so they are not the only ones responsible for their own restoration. They also discuss emotional regulation — what it actually means, why it affects everything from relationships to career trajectories to physical health, and how a 16-year-old's suicidal ideation gradually resolved as he learned to name what was happening inside him and trust that the people around him would lean in and listen — the Wellness for Kids program Ash co-created with Chelsea Ferguson that teaches third graders the stop technique, deep breathing, and the difference between bullying and tattling, including the moment yesterday when a little girl grabbed the microphone and told 50 students the right response to bullying is to fight back and the whole room cheered, and what Ash's five-year vision looks like — clinicians under her license, school districts running the program at scale, an app that makes emotional regulation tools available to every child regardless of whether their parents can afford therapy. Ash Reynolds is a licensed marriage and family therapist and founder of Modern Day Wellness Group in Los Angeles, California. Connect with Ash Reynolds: moderndaywellness.org Psychology Today: search Ashinee Reynolds Wellness for Kids: wellness4kids.org Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Ash Reynolds 00:55 Growing up in LA watching ministry leaders, doctors, and nurses run on empty — and realizing burnout was the problem she was meant to solve 01:51 How do I know if it's burnout or just regular tiredness — the difference in that feeling of going through the motions 02:42 Compassion fatigue versus burnout — why they are similar and which one is more specific to service professions 03:08 If you love what you do, how can you still have compassion fatigue — the nurse who forgets to eat 03:54 What Ash actually does with her clients — one on one, the basics people forget when they are too busy 05:08 Why pastors and ministry leaders resist admitting they are struggling even when they preach vulnerability 05:52 Her current practice — one on one therapy, the Wellness for Kids launch, and the workshop she hosted yesterday 06:58 What emotional regulation actually means and why it matters 08:03 Wellness for Kids — the curriculum, what it covers, and why it was created 09:38 The program components — emotional regulation, bullying versus tattling, physical wellness, and mindfulness 10:09 Bullying versus tattling — why both words sound pejorative and what the distinction actually teaches kids 11:14 A success story from individual therapy — the 16-year-old who looked like a shining star and was quietly struggling with suicidal ideation 13:09 How he ended up in her care — referrals, and why word of mouth is the best marketing 14:00 Yesterday's Wellness for Kids workshop — the little girl who grabbed the microphone and told 50 students to fight back 15:44 How the Wellness for Kids program reaches schools and who pays for it — right now nobody does 17:11 Is the goal to turn Wellness for Kids into a business or keep it as a sidelight 17:51 What the five-year vision looks like — clinicians under her license, school districts, an app, and parent training 19:14 Her own story — Belize, St. Louis, Los Angeles, being told she would never get into Pepperdine, and why she believes mentors change everything 20:41 Where Modern Day Wellness Group is in five years — Wellness for Kids as a subsector, referrals into therapy, parent training layered in 21:44 The compassion fatigue workshop at Harvard — what surprised her about how the audience received it 22:42 Healing expands when we work together — what that phrase actually means in practice #AshReynolds #ModernDayWellness #TrustcastShow #CompassionFatigue #EmotionalRegulation #WellnessForKids #BurnoutPrevention #TherapistLA #MFT #ChildWellness

What happens when a psychiatric social worker who spent 12 years inside the mental health system before going to law school teams up with a former Philadelphia DA prosecutor who took 60 jury trials to verdict, got nominated to the Chester County bench by two separate governors, and sat in every division of the Court of Common Pleas — and they both end up at one of the oldest law firms in Pennsylvania doing what they each love most? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with John McKenna and Lou Mincarelli of MacElree Harvey about the full landscape of what they do — from Orphan's Court will contests and guardianships for incapacitated adults to criminal defense and civil litigation — and why the collaborative arbitration model John pioneered is quietly changing how families and businesses resolve disputes in the Delaware Valley. Lou explains what collaborative arbitration actually is — a hybrid where parties still participate and present their case like in mediation, but the arbitrator can make a binding decision at the end if the parties cannot reach agreement themselves — and why knowing that the arbitrator can step in and decide actually tends to push parties toward resolution faster than either pure mediation or traditional arbitration alone. They also discuss what actually happens inside a police interrogation room and why police are legally permitted to lie to suspects, why Miranda rights only kick in during custodial interrogation and not at the moment of arrest, what the one conversation families refuse to have that costs them the most in estate disputes — communicating the reasons behind their estate plan while they are still alive — what Lou's biggest pet peeve was in his courtroom when attorneys repeatedly broke the rules of civility, why 60 jury trials taught him that you can never take any particular set of facts for granted with a jury, and why the cost of preparing for trial is the thing clients almost never factor in when they refuse to consider mediation or arbitration. John McKenna and Lou Mincarelli are partners at MacElree Harvey, one of Pennsylvania's oldest and most respected law firms, serving clients across Southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland. Connect with John McKenna and Lou Mincarelli: maceleeharvey.com West Chester, Pennsylvania Chapters 00:00 Introduction to John McKenna and Lou Mincarelli of MacElree Harvey 00:38 First impressions — the judge meets the psychiatric social worker turned litigator 01:44 Lou's background — crime victim advocate, Philadelphia DA, 60 jury trials, two appointments to the bench 03:20 What Lou practices at MacElree Harvey — criminal, civil, family court, and mediation 04:40 What Orphan's Court actually is and why it is unique to Pennsylvania 05:27 John's role — wills, trusts, guardianships, and court-appointed mediator in Orphan's Court 06:52 My parent just died and the will is completely different from what we were always told — what is the first move 07:41 How mediation works in will contest cases and why it is usually resolved in one day 08:48 Why both mediation and arbitration exist — uncertainty, cost, time, and the risk of losing a case you should have won 10:42 Caucusing — separating parties and doing the arm twisting in separate rooms 11:50 The arbitrator explaining the difference between mediation and arbitration 15:18 Collaborative arbitration explained — putting people back in the process with a binding backstop 17:23 Is collaborative arbitration unique to Pennsylvania or to John's practice 18:25 The key advantage of collaborative arbitration — parties know how the arbitrator is leaning in real time 20:18 How arbitration differs from a jury trial — the cost and time savings explained 22:15 I just got arrested — what are the first two things I should do before saying a single word 22:35 Why police are legally permitted to lie to suspects and how interrogation tactics actually work 24:47 The misconception about Miranda rights — they only apply during custodial interrogation 25:55 When to speak and when not to speak — including federal grand jury subpoenas 27:27 Lou took 60 jury trials to verdict — what do juries most consistently misunderstand 28:42 How model jury instructions work in Pennsylvania and why attorneys have to hammer the law home in plain language 29:42 Can a judge overrule a jury — when and how 31:02 What happens when something prejudicial slips into a trial and whether a mistrial is the answer 32:25 Rapid fire — John on Sunday mornings, Lou on prosecution versus defense 33:27 The one conversation families refuse to have that causes the most estate disasters #JohnMcKenna #LouMincarelli #MacElreeHarvey #TrustcastShow #CollaborativeArbitration #OrphansCourt #WillContest #CriminalDefense #ChesterCountyLaw #PennsylvaniaLaw

What happens when a British kid who grew up watching his father build businesses from nothing comes to America for college, stumbles into a trial courtroom as a law school intern and knows within five minutes that's where he belongs, spends five years trying 200 jury trials including capital murder cases for Palm Beach County, walks away burned out, loses himself for a decade trying desperately not to be a lawyer, loses his father 11 months into a new practice, watches a family member get Baker acted two days after the burial, and then builds the firm that Florida families — and families from Oregon, Hawaii, New Jersey, and North Carolina — call at 2 a.m. when a loved one is disappearing into addiction? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Mark Astor, founder of the Mental Health Addiction Law Firm, about the Marchman Act, the Baker Act, and guardianship — the three Florida statutes that together give families legal authority to make the decision their loved one's hijacked brain cannot make — and why the disease itself is one of the reasons someone won't go to treatment, because the disease does not want its own antidote. Mark explains why a Baker Act detention has none of the due process protections of a criminal arrest despite the fact that the person being detained has done nothing wrong, why facilities with health insurance incentives are motivated to keep patients and document accordingly, and why he files more habeas petitions than any other attorney in Florida after watching those patterns up close. They also discuss what happens when a family calls at noon on Monday and how a pod of an associate, paralegal, and law clerk gets a petition filed and an order sought before the end of that same business day, why the belief that you can't force someone into recovery misunderstands what the disease has done to the person you are looking at, the statistic that if someone stays in recovery for one year there is a 70% chance they stay for life, the family whose son was a market genius until marijuana sent him into psychosis and why it took eight months of Marchman Act and guardianship before he started turning the corner, and the adopted daughter whose father had marchman-acted her multiple times before she walked out of treatment, overdosed, and died — the call that still stays with him. Mark Astor is the founder of the Mental Health Addiction Law Firm, based in Boca Raton, Florida. Connect with Mark Astor: mentalhealthaddictionlawfirm.com Boca Raton, Florida Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Mark Astor 00:41 Starting at Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office in 1994 and knowing within five minutes this was the place 01:32 200 jury trials in five years — and burning out completely 02:48 A decade of misery, a failed marriage, an LLM, a presidential campaign, and failing the California bar exam twice 04:28 Meeting R. John Robbins and discovering the business side of running a law firm 06:10 Finding the people who needed his help — behavioral health — and why nobody was doing it 07:30 14 months before the first behavioral health case, building from a library with cheap coffee and Vistaprint cards 08:15 His father dying 11 months in — and then watching a family member get Baker acted two days after the burial 09:00 The mission of the firm — saving families whose loved ones are disappearing into addiction and mental illness 10:37 The three statutes — Marchman Act, Baker Act, and guardianship — and how they work together 12:15 Can we also work the other side — representing respondents and why Mark will take those cases 12:44 My son is in Florida rehab and just called saying he's walking out — what do I do in the next hour 13:47 How the Marchman Act works on an ex parte emergency basis — same day filing and orders within hours 14:00 Baker Act versus Marchman Act — the key distinction between substance use and mental health statutes 15:23 Guardianship — broader relief but why courts are reluctant to grant it ex parte 15:18 How the Baker Act works — the 72-hour detention, sovereign immunity, and the incentive to keep patients 17:06 Why Mark has filed more habeas petitions than any other lawyer in Florida — and what started it 18:24 Two Baker Act cases that show how it goes wrong — the mother-daughter misquote and the 80-year-old husband 20:30 Children getting Baker acted for social media posts and T-shirts after Marjorie Stoneman Douglas 21:54 What a significant period of detention actually means — up to six months and how facilities buy extra time 23:59 Who actually stays in these facilities — and the insurance connection Mark won't say plainly but will imply clearly 25:29 My daughter is 24 and using fentanyl and says she has no problem — when does a family have legal options #MarkAstor #MentalHealthAddictionLawFirm #TrustcastShow #MarchmanAct #BakerAct #AddictionLaw #FamilyAddictionHelp #SubstanceUseDisorder #FloridaAddictionLaw #HabeasPetition

What happens when a five-year-old who watched her father help people in his Dallas law office decides she wants that same response from the world, becomes the youngest prosecutor ever assigned to crimes against children in Collin County at 27, spends two decades in courtrooms trying to protect kids, helps recover nearly $3 billion for Texas counties in the opioid epidemic, goes to Singapore to fight child trafficking with Interpol, and then comes home, becomes a survivor who finally told her own story, and wrote the book that distills everything she has learned into a step-by-step guide for the 57 million American women carrying this in silence? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with JoDee Neal, former prosecutor, author of Outcry Witness, and founder of Neal Now Legal, about what to do in the first 24 hours after a child discloses abuse, why the perpetrators control the evidence they leave behind and why child credibility is established through how the outcry takes place rather than physical proof, and why the legal system — as necessary as it is — cannot be the foundation of healing because you are giving your power away twice. JoDee explains what grooming actually looks like before any abuse occurs, why the child who goes silent afterward is not recanting but surviving, and why the bravest thing she has ever seen a human being do is say the truth about what happened to them in front of the person who did it. They also discuss what makes institutions like churches, schools, and daycares legally liable when an employee harms a child — and the pattern JoDee keeps seeing where perpetrators resign rather than get arrested and then move district to district with clean background checks — the DARVO defense that corporations deploy when an employee comes forward, why the person generating income for the company almost never gets removed and the victim almost always does, what the beach ball analogy explains about why locking trauma away and surviving is not the same as living, and what her consulting practice now offers to both survivors and businesses who want to get ahead of the liability before it costs them millions. JoDee Neal is a former prosecutor, author of Outcry Witness, and founder of Neal Now Legal, a consulting and legal practice based in Dallas, Texas. Connect with JoDee Neal: jodeeneal.com neilnowlegal.com Book: Outcry Witness — A Former Prosecutor's Guide to Healing and Justice After Sexual Violence Chapters 00:00 Introduction to JoDee Neal 00:48 Growing up in her father's Dallas law office at age five — what she saw that made her certain 01:30 Youngest prosecutor ever assigned to crimes against children in Collin County at 27 02:18 A child just told me something happened — what do I do in the next 24 hours 02:56 I'm terrified my child won't be believed — how does child credibility actually get established 03:48 Reporting to CPS versus law enforcement — when to choose one and whether you should do both 04:39 The person who hurt my child is a family member — does going legal blow up the entire family 05:38 My child is acting totally normal now and won't talk about it — did I imagine it 05:59 What grooming actually looks like before the abuse starts — how perpetrators weaponize kindness 07:02 The statute of limitations for child sexual abuse in Texas and whether it is ever too late 07:50 Why the legal system cannot be the basis of your healing 08:19 Walking through what actually happens from first disclosure all the way to the courtroom 09:30 Best practices — the Children's Advocacy Center, the video recorded interview, and vertical prosecution 11:40 How do you avoid re-traumatizing a child through the entire process 12:45 Kids in court — bringing survivors to the courtroom in advance so fear of the unknown is removed 13:17 Why testifying in person has a healing property that closed circuit testimony does not 13:52 Cross-examination of a child — the constitutional tension that nobody has solved yet 15:49 Can you sue civilly without a criminal conviction — and what makes it worth the effort 16:50 What makes institutions legally liable — and what most churches, schools, and daycares are not doing 18:24 Perpetrators who resign rather than face arrest and move district to district with clean records 19:22 What systemic failure with pattern and practice of coverup looks like in discovery 20:34 Can a company report an allegation to the next employer without creating defamation liability 24:12 Outcry Witness — the book, the primary message, and what a reader takes away 25:29 The 45% of American women who have survived contact sexual violence — and what that number means for society 26:29 An adult who has carried this for 30 or 40 years — what does the book offer them #JoDeeNeal #OutcryWitness #NealNowLegal #TrustcastShow #ChildSexualAbuse #SurvivorHealing #CrimesAgainstChildren #SexualViolence #WorkplaceHarassment #ChildProtection

What happens when a trauma therapist trained in EMDR, interpersonal neurobiology, and dialectical behavior therapy decides that the most important work he can do is not in a clinical setting but in a coaching practice built around a single observation — that the most capable, dependable, highest-functioning people around us are quietly carrying more strain than anyone can see, and that the maintenance tasks required to sustain a human being are the first things to go when performance becomes the only priority? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Drew Sewell, founder of Avora Coaching, about what invisible strain actually feels like from the inside — hollowness, irritability, disconnection, no patience, and eventually the darker versions that show up as substance use or thrill-seeking — and why telling a high performer to back off is exactly the wrong framing. Drew explains state shifting, the nervous system reset technique he developed from his EMDR and trauma therapy background that can be installed in a single session and accessed with one word, and why the goal is never to stop building but to stop burning through the fuel that makes building sustainable. He also explains why the people who are functioning perfectly on the outside and feel empty on the inside are exactly who he built this for. They also discuss why vacation does not fix the problem — and why going on vacation with kids is not actually a vacation — what happens in the body and brain when someone has been carrying high pressure for too long and starts borrowing from relational and emotional functioning to keep cognitive performance going, how this work translates to legal proceedings where a witness or client whose nervous system blows a circuit at the wrong moment can tank a case that took years to build, the concept of the mind as a house and what it means to actually build usable capacity rather than outsourcing stress to alcohol or affairs or hobbies that just create more demands, and why nobody wants to work anymore is almost always a red flag that someone is building a skyscraper on a foundation meant for a house. Drew Sewell is the founder of Avora Coaching, a performance and wellness coaching practice based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, serving high performers virtually nationwide. Connect with Drew Sewell: avoracoaching.com Phone: 338-629-5044 Email: [email protected] Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Drew Sewell 00:41 Restoring what success has cost them — what that phrase actually means 01:26 What invisible strain feels like from the inside — hollowness, irritability, and the darker versions 02:04 High performers who are always exhausted — is sleep really the answer 02:48 The cross-country road trip analogy — stopping for gas is not backing off 03:20 State shifting explained — accessing a nervous system state with more energy and clarity in minutes 04:39 What a neural loop is and why high performers get stuck in them 05:58 How the state-shifting install actually works — the walking technique from EMDR adapted for coaching 07:08 Building the magic room — what memory-based state activation looks like in practice 08:11 How many times you have to do this to lock in the link — one time 08:44 When to rehearse it and how to strengthen the neural pathway with 30 seconds a day 09:40 Does state shifting come at the beginning of the coaching program 10:06 Virtual versus in-person, and what happens administratively before you start 11:01 The first session — installing the state, walking through future stress scenarios, and designing the system 12:26 How this impacts family life — coming home without resenting it 13:52 A story from practice — the high performer who starts fighting at home and drinking to take the edge off 16:39 Building usable capacity versus just feeling better — the difference 17:47 Going outside the house — affairs, alcohol, and hobbies that create more stress instead of solving any 18:28 If everything looks great on the outside but feels hollow on the inside — is that enough reason to reach out 19:28 The three-month program — six sessions, every other week, and why you have to build it yourself 20:16 Rapid fire — what Drew does to actually recover, one book that changed how he sees people, the question that always means something deeper 21:55 The red flag phrase — nobody wants to work anymore 22:47 State-based functioning explained for a non-clinician 23:30 What happens in the body and brain after carrying high pressure for too long 24:48 Why vacation does not fix it — and why changing your oil once a year is not a maintenance plan 25:50 What success actually looks like at the end of working with Drew #DrewSewell #AvoraCoaching #TrustcastShow #HighPerformerBurnout #StateShifting #ExecutiveWellness #PerformanceCoaching #TraumaInformedCoaching #NervousSystemReset #BurnoutRecovery

What happens when a psychotherapist and women's life transition coach who has lived through her own relational trauma decides that the most powerful thing she can do with that pain is build a platform, write in thirteen anthologies, launch a nonprofit to help women leave toxic relationships, and spend her career helping other women recognize the difference between a partner who lost interest and a partner who was lying to their face for years? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Sonia Rodriguez, founder of Transition to Wellness, about why so many women override their own intuition even when something has felt off for a long time — often because they haven't found the physical evidence yet, or because they are being told they are crazy, jealous, or controlling by the very person they are trying to trust. Sonia explains the difference between heartbreak and betrayal trauma, why betrayal trauma is one of the most challenging forms of trauma anyone can experience because it causes you to question everything you believed was real, and why emotional pain shows up so profoundly in the body — in sleep, in appetite, in shoulder tension, in stomach issues — because the mind and body are not separate systems. They also discuss why there is no timeline for healing and why rushing someone through it is the worst possible thing to do, what self abandonment actually looks like in someone who doesn't recognize it — constantly giving up what you need to stay in a relationship — how the concept of self leadership shifts that dynamic by building non-negotiables, why love bombing is the reason so many women end up asking what happened to the person they fell in love with, what attachment style theory explains about why people repeatedly choose the same kinds of partners, and what the one thing is that any woman can do today before she ever books a session to start shifting things. Sonia Rodriguez is a psychotherapist, women's life transition coach, author, speaker, and founder of Transition to Wellness, serving women navigating relational trauma, toxic relationships, and major life transitions. Connect with Sonia Rodriguez: transition2wellness.com Instagram: @transition.to.wellness LinkedIn: Sonia Rodriguez She Wins Women's Network: shewinsWomensnetwork.com She Rises Studios: sherisestudio.com Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Sonia Rodriguez 00:34 Who Sonia is and what Transition to Wellness actually does 01:00 I feel like I'm going crazy — the anger, obsessive checking, and intrusive thoughts — is this a trauma response 01:20 The power of intuition and why something feels off before the evidence appears 02:20 Why women talk themselves out of what they already know — and the role gaslighting plays 03:19 Are women uniquely different from men in how they navigate these situations 03:57 The difference between heartbreak and betrayal trauma — and why betrayal is on another level entirely 05:40 My body is falling apart — why emotional betrayal shows up so physically 06:03 The mind-body connection — The Body Keeps the Score and releasing trauma from the body 06:59 People telling you to just get over it — and why there is no timeline for healing 07:20 Triggers that appear years later even when the healing work has been done 08:48 The first real clinical step forward — not take care of yourself, but the actual first step 09:37 What clinical therapy with integrative wellness and spiritual practices actually looks like 10:43 What a typical session looks like — anger, sadness, relief, and the small goals that matter 12:04 Thirteen anthologies on Amazon and a book coming out this year on turning pain into purpose 13:07 How her own relational trauma became the foundation of her coaching, nonprofit, and community work 14:07 Why some women seem to go from one toxic relationship to another — and how to break that cycle 14:58 Love bombing — what it is, how it hooks people, and why the glimmers keep them stuck 16:00 Attachment patterns rooted in childhood dynamics — and why you keep choosing the same partner 17:08 Attachment styles explained — anxious versus avoidant and why that pairing creates so much suffering 18:56 What if you fall in love with someone you shouldn't — and how to decide what you're willing to give up 19:18 Self abandonment — giving up what you need to stay in a relationship 20:37 You can't fix people — what you can do instead 21:50 From self abandonment to self leadership — recognizing your non-negotiables 23:38 Who her clients are — ages 13 to 68, primarily middle-aged women navigating life transitions 24:19 What betrayal trauma after 43 years of marriage would actually feel like 26:32 Is it possible to recover from anything — and yes couples do choose to repair and rebuild #SoniaRodriguez #TransitionToWellness #TrustcastShow #BetrayalTrauma #WomensHealing #RelationalTrauma #AttachmentStyle #ToxicRelationships #SelfLeadership #WomensLifeCoach

What happens when a lawyer who spent 15 years defending builders against construction defect claims — learning exactly how insurance companies calculate risk, what motivates adjusters to settle, and what plaintiff firms do that make cases harder to resolve — wakes up one morning after pulling an all-nighter to write ten motions, taking a deposition, and driving straight to the courthouse without sleeping, only to get grilled by an insurance rep about a plan detail that didn't matter, and decides that maybe the homeowners with leaking balconies are actually the good guys? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Mike Kennedy, construction defect attorney at Berding Weil, about how an HOA knows whether water intrusion is a maintenance problem or a construction defect the builder has to pay for, what the 10-year statute of limitations in California actually means and how to find when your clock started, and why letting the builder come out and do repairs does not close your claim unless a new California bill passes that the building industry drafted to do exactly that. Mike explains the forensic investigation process — walking the property, homeowner questionnaires, destructive testing — and how a case that started with rusting fire pit igniters and canvas awnings in South Orange County turned into an eight-figure claim once the balcony leaks and slope movement were uncovered. They also discuss what happens when the builder has gone out of business and the only path to recovery runs through the subcontractors, why filing with the HOA's own insurance is almost never the right answer and can make the affordability crisis worse, how the contingency fee structure means HOAs typically spend nothing out of pocket, the war story about settling a $700,000 case for $300,000 and somehow getting in trouble with the insurance company for it, and what his internal reaction is the moment a defense lawyer opens with a lowball number — he skips the counter and goes straight to trial. Mike Kennedy is a construction defect attorney at Berding Weil representing HOAs and building owners in California. Connect with Mike Kennedy: [email protected] LinkedIn: Mike Kennedy California State Bar searchable at calbar.ca.gov Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Mike Kennedy 00:34 The moment he realized he was on the wrong side — the all-nighter, the deposition, and the insurance rep 01:45 Waking up and deciding the property owners are the good guys 02:22 Growing up in Mission Viejo watching the builders cover everything and developing a vague resentment 03:52 First job out of law school on the defense side — student loans and the first best offer 04:16 An HOA president just found water intrusion in three units — how do you know if it's a defect or maintenance 05:43 The 10-year statute of limitations — and how to find when your clock actually started 06:25 City inspection sign-offs — does city approval mean anything in a defect claim 07:39 The builder already did some repairs — does that close the claim 08:17 The pending California legislation the building industry drafted to cut off claims after repairs 09:38 Becoming an involuntary lobbyist — working with trade groups in Sacramento on HOA legislation 10:44 How 15 years on the defense side gives insight into what motivates insurance carriers to settle 11:50 The war story — settling a $700,000 case for $300,000 and getting in trouble for it 14:30 How HOAs find a construction defect attorney — usually through the community manager 15:05 The forensic investigation process — site walk, homeowner questionnaire, destructive testing 16:45 The case that started with fire pit igniters and canvas awnings and became eight figures 18:20 What to do when emergency repairs are needed but the builder has the right to repair 20:08 When the builder calls and says don't worry we'll fix it — should you let them 21:52 Should the HOA file with their own insurance — and why that almost never makes sense 23:08 What happens when the builder has gone under and has no active policy 24:55 How much is this going to cost us — the contingency fee model explained 26:15 How to stretch the settlement across priorities and sometimes have money left over 27:05 The South Orange County eight-figure case from start to finish 30:02 Town halls every 90 days, coffee and donuts on Saturday mornings, and what you can and cannot say in public 31:15 When does a construction defect case go to trial versus arbitration 32:36 The four-week jury trial defending the repair contractor — and the defense verdict 33:36 Why juries key on something completely unrelated and how experienced trial lawyers account for that #MikeKennedy #BerdingWeil #ConstructionDefect #TrustcastShow #HOALaw #CaliforniaHOA #BuildingDefect #ConstructionLaw #HOAAttorney #HomebuildersLiability

What happens when a Queens DA prosecutor who spent six years putting felony offenders away in domestic violence and special victims cases discovers that everything she learned about expert witnesses, burden of proof, and preparing witnesses for hostile questioning translates perfectly into defending physicians — and then teams up with a partner who grew up inside a medical family, watched her physician father do expert work on malpractice cases, came out of Hofstra already thinking in anatomy and science, and built her specialty around seeing every case as a chess match where you are always thinking about the appellate record before the trial even begins? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Jennifer Higgins and Melissa Goldberg, partners co-leading the Medical Malpractice Defense Division at Abrams Fensterman, about what is actually going through a physician's mind the morning they open a summons, why talking to a colleague who has also been sued is one of the most legally dangerous things a doctor can do, and why the belief that the truth will simply come out at trial is one of the costliest assumptions in the field. Jennifer walks through the Perry Mason moment she actually experienced — forcing the plaintiff's expert to admit that the book he edited was authoritative, then hammering him on the specific chapter her client had followed to the letter, until he announced he didn't care about the book and sent his water cup flying — and explains how she used pasta to help a jury understand the difference between an arteriovenous malformation in the lung versus elsewhere in the body. They also discuss the causation defense that Melissa used to win a rheumatic fever case at the appellate division after losing summary judgment — where even a correct diagnosis on the day of the visit could not have changed the patient's outcome — why the hospital or employer is not always on the physician's side, how the appellate record has to be built during trial before anyone knows whether an appeal will be needed, and why Abrams Fensterman's one-stop-shop model gives physicians something most malpractice defense firms simply cannot offer. Jennifer Higgins and Melissa Goldberg are partners co-leading the Medical Malpractice Defense Division at Abrams Fensterman in Lake Success, New York. Connect with Jennifer Higgins and Melissa Goldberg: abramslaw.com Phone: 516-328-2300 Lake Success, New York Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Jennifer Higgins and Melissa Goldberg 00:54 Jennifer's path — six years as a Queens DA in domestic violence and special victims, then pivoting to physician defense 02:11 What pulled her out of the DA's office — student loans, a love of complexity, and the courtroom 03:23 Working with DNA and medical experts as a prosecutor — and how that prepared her for retaining defense experts 03:53 Melissa's path — growing up in a medical family and going straight into healthcare defense 05:09 A doctor opens a summons on a Tuesday morning — what is happening inside that person's mind 05:41 The first call to the insurance carrier — notify immediately and request preferred counsel 06:43 Doctors who don't even know who the plaintiff is — how that happens and how the team handles it 07:50 Over 95% of physicians experience significant emotional distress when sued — what Jennifer sees across the table 08:13 Hand-holding through every step — phone calls on weekends and bringing the blood pressure down 09:30 When malpractice leads to OPMC licensing issues — working hand in hand with the full-service team 10:01 Jennifer as the litigator, Melissa as the strategist and appellate thinker — how the two roles work together 11:09 Seeing every case as a chess match — anticipating every move before making any decision 11:25 How often cases actually reach trial — and why preparing every case for trial is the standard anyway 11:48 The discovery process — medical records, depositions, and the path to resolution 12:43 Path A versus path B — thinking through long-term ramifications of every litigation decision 13:08 Building the appellate record during trial — why having appellate counsel in the room matters 14:06 Notifying the insurance carrier and what to say and what never to say on that first call 15:19 The cardinal rule — talk only to your carrier and your lawyer, nobody else 16:55 The physician deposition — talking too much is the single biggest mistake 17:43 How deposition differs from trial — open questions versus controlled cross-examination 18:39 Preparing physicians for deposition — you do not throw them to the wolves 19:32 Taking apart the plaintiff's medical expert — cross-examination and prior contradictory testimony #JenniferHiggins #MelissaGoldberg #AbramsFensterman #MedicalMalpracticeDefense #TrustcastShow #PhysicianDefense #NewYorkMalpractice #StandardOfCare #HealthcareLaw #MalpracticeAttorney

What happens when a clinical child psychologist goes to Russia as a graduate student to study children in baby homes — places where zero to four-year-olds may see 60 to 100 different caregivers in their first two years and never the same caregiver on two consecutive days — observes firsthand what sensitivity and consistency do when they're introduced into that environment, and then brings that insight back to co-create a seven-session therapy that is now turning around parent-child relationships in foster care settings and private practices across the country? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Dr. Brandy Hauck, clinical child psychologist and CEO of Red Leaf Psychology in Sacramento, about what she saw in those baby homes that confirmed what most people intuitively know but almost no institution was willing to act on, and how the directors of the control homes responded when shown the data — they said they didn't believe it, and what they were doing was better. Brandy explains the three things always at play when a child is melting down and nothing works — the child, the parent, and the relationship between them — and why the fastest sign that a child is struggling emotionally is actually the one most parents celebrate: the child who is perfectly behaved, never gets in trouble, and never takes a chance. They also discuss why the zero to five window is the most powerful period to intervene but it is never too late regardless of a child's age, how PC Care builds a positive relationship in the early sessions before ever touching the hard stuff like commands and consequences, the foster care story of a little girl who was terrified of her new foster father and how PC Care brought them to a place where he and his wife requested to move toward adoption, why foster children with disruptive behaviors get caught in a terrible cycle of placement changes that makes everything worse, and how PC Care's introduction into Sacramento's foster system during the first 90 days of placement measurably reduced that cycle. Dr. Brandy Hauck is a clinical child psychologist and CEO of Red Leaf Psychology in Sacramento, California, and co-developer of PC Care therapy. Connect with Dr. Brandy Hauck: redleafpsychology.com Email: [email protected] Social: @TheNerdyPsychologistBookClub on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Dr. Brandy Hauck 00:34 Going to Russia as a graduate student — what the baby homes actually looked like 01:03 The baby home system in Russia — why children with disabilities were relinquished at birth 03:38 Three different baby homes in the study — no intervention, training only, and structural plus training 05:03 Sixty to one hundred different caregivers in the first two years — never the same face on back-to-back days 06:01 What happened to kids in the homes where sensitivity and consistency were introduced 07:21 Presenting the data to the other baby home directors — and being told they didn't believe it 08:07 How that research informed the creation of PC Care with Susan Timmer and Lindsay Armendariz 09:10 Seven sessions seems too short — why most of the gains happen in the first seven weeks anyway 10:02 My kid's melting down and nothing works — is this a parenting problem, a child problem, or something else 11:17 How do I know if what my child is doing is a phase or something that needs professional help 12:00 The sign parents miss most — the perfectly behaved child who never gets in trouble 13:04 What is actually going on behind the perfect child — over-control, anxiety, and the cost of the facade 13:38 My child went through a divorce, a move, or a loss and their behavior completely changed — what is happening 14:24 How the nervous system adjusts to stressful events and what that looks like in behavior 15:07 Is there a window where the parent-child relationship becomes too damaged to repair 16:09 Zero to five is the most powerful window — but it is never too late 17:07 A parent loves their child but genuinely does not like being around them right now — can therapy help 18:19 How playing together in session creates a moment where the parent discovers their kid is actually cool 19:27 Family therapy conflict causing families to quit — how PC Care avoids that by starting with easy 20:35 The seven sessions broken down — what happens in each one 23:00 One parent is all in and the other thinks therapy is pointless or is actively working against it 25:24 Where to find PC Care — Sacramento in person, virtual coaching, paraprofessional parent coaching, and group classes 27:13 For therapists — PC Care trainings in San Francisco in August and ongoing training across the country 28:41 The foster care story — a little girl terrified of her foster father and how it ended in a request for adoption #BrandyHauck #RedLeafPsychology #PCCare #TrustcastShow #ChildPsychology #ParentingTherapy #FosterCare #ParentChildRelationship #ChildTherapy #NerdyPsychologistBookClub

What happens when a molecular biology student who wanted to be a doctor until she worked in a hospital, pivoted to law school with healthcare in mind, picked up her patent bar along the way, and then took a mentor's advice to try FDA law — and discovered that most brands selling health and wellness products online are one Instagram post away from a problem they don't even know is coming? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Natasha Taken, founder of The Advertising Lawyer, about the single most dangerous mistake founders make when writing copy for a health product — copying what competitors are saying without knowing their science, their ingredients, or what's happening to them in the background — and why a several hundred thousand dollar settlement can flow from a single claim on a pack that may or may not have been substantiated. Natasha explains the critical distinction between a structure/function claim and a disease claim, why saying your supplement supports healthy sleep is legal while saying it fixes insomnia makes it a drug, and why the FTC and FDA are always watching regardless of how small your brand is. They also discuss why a civil investigative demand from the FTC is actually scarier than an FDA warning letter and can lead to 20 years of paperwork and headaches, what the FTC updated in its endorsement guides and why most brands in e-commerce still don't know about it, why hashtag ad is often not enough disclosure for influencer partnerships, what the current GLP-1 comparison minefield looks like and why supplement brands comparing themselves to Ozempic are asking for trouble, why a ton of glowing testimonials about a supplement curing serious illness will draw enforcement faster than almost anything else, and what a brand that has its advertising compliance dialed in is actually doing that most brands aren't. Natasha Taken is the founder of The Advertising Lawyer, an FDA and FTC advertising compliance practice serving e-commerce brands, supplement companies, and health and wellness founders. Connect with Natasha Taken: theadvertisinglawyer.com Email: [email protected] Social: @theadvertisinglawyer on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Natasha Taken 00:46 One Instagram post away from a serious problem — was there a specific moment 01:03 The first year out of law school — a several hundred thousand dollar settlement over pack claims 02:29 From molecular biology to FDA law — why she left the hospital path and found the intersection 03:57 The single most dangerous mistake founders make when writing product copy 04:43 What is the difference between a structure function claim and a disease claim 05:32 Why supplements can say they support healthy sleep but cannot say they fix insomnia 05:56 Do nutritional companies make this mistake frequently — and why newer brands get it wrong 07:04 What the FDA and FTC are actually looking for — and how often they are watching 08:16 They're always watching — even small brands are not invisible 08:44 The made in USA claim crackdown the FTC is running right now 09:12 Can the FTC fine you for a customer review you never asked for 10:48 What makes a testimonial a legal liability versus just a review 11:01 What makes an influencer partnership a legal liability for a brand 12:01 Why hashtag ad is often not enough disclosure under FTC rules 12:32 Native advertising — when a news story is actually a paid ad and nobody discloses it 13:51 My competitor is making bolder claims than me and nothing is happening — does that mean I'm being too cautious 14:32 FTC investigations are quiet until they're made public 15:08 What changed in the FTC's 2023 updated endorsement guides 16:01 Fake doctors, AI-generated endorsers, and employees posing as customers 17:14 The speeding analogy — just because others are doing it does not mean you will not get caught 17:21 I sent free samples to influencers without a contract — what is the brand's liability 19:01 Rapid fire — the product claim that made her physically wince, favorite travel destination, dream FDA committee 20:19 What she does on weekends to completely not be a lawyer 20:37 What actually happens in the first 24 hours after a brand gets an FDA warning letter 21:31 FDA warning letter versus FTC civil investigative demand — which one should scare you more 22:36 A civil investigative demand can lead to 20-plus years of paperwork and headaches 23:44 What a brand with its advertising compliance dialed in is actually doing that most brands aren't 24:40 When a company realizes mid-investigation that their own documents don't make them look great 25:55 How Natasha helps a brand figure out what claims they can actually make #NatashaTaken #TheAdvertisingLawyer #TrustcastShow #FDACompliance #FTCMarketing #HealthProductClaims #InfluencerMarketing #SupplementLaw #AdvertisingLaw #EcommerceLaw

What happens when a certified athletic trainer who played three sports in high school and four years of college baseball, spent his first career taping ankles and rehabbing hamstrings on the field, walks into a clinical operations role at a multi-location healthcare practice and discovers he loves the data, the KPIs, the marketing cycles, and the standard operating procedures just as much as he ever loved the field — and then builds an entire personal and professional philosophy around three words he wears on his wrist every single day? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Frank Mayo, COO of NJ Sports Spine and Wellness in New Jersey, about what Never Miss Twice actually means and how Atomic Habits shaped the way he thinks about consistency, discipline, and forgiving yourself for missing one day without letting it become two. Frank walks through the three KPIs that tell him the most about the real health of a clinical practice — referral source, cancellation rate, and retention rate — and why the most meaningful one is always where the patient referrals are coming from, because that number tells you whether the community actually trusts what you're doing. He also explains why he tells every provider he manages that he works for them, not the other way around, and what it actually looks like to practice servant leadership in a clinical environment where the stakes are people's health. They also discuss what it costs a clinical practice to fight with insurance every single year — declining reimbursement rates, rising deductibles, and the internal billing team that makes it survivable — why private equity ownership filters all the way down to the front desk and how patients feel the difference between a practice owned by clinicians who still treat patients versus one owned by a firm chasing benchmarks, why the gold is always underneath your feet rather than somewhere else you haven't looked yet, and why if you're not evolving as an independent practice every single year, you're dying. Frank Mayo is the COO of NJ Sports Spine and Wellness, a multi-location sports medicine and orthopedic practice with offices in Matawan and Marlboro, New Jersey. Connect with Frank Mayo: njsportsspineandwellness.com Phone: 908-8NO-PAIN Instagram: @Frank.J.Mayo Matawan and Marlboro, New Jersey 00:00 Introduction to Frank Mayo 00:34 The Never Miss Twice philosophy — where it came from and what it actually means 01:30 Atomic Habits, building consistent patterns, and forgiving yourself for missing one day 02:50 The wristband that keeps the mantra in front of him every single day 03:39 From Salisbury University to head athletic trainer at Stepinac High School to clinical operations 04:03 The mentor who told him the gold is underneath your feet — and what that changed 05:00 Why influencing multiple providers beats treating patients one at a time with two hands 06:35 What NJ Sports Spine and Wellness actually does — conservative and medical services under one roof 07:34 What the typical patient looks like — spine, orthopedics, concussion, and everything in between 08:41 Retooling from athletic training to spine rehabilitation when he made the clinical transition 10:54 Being intimately involved in KPIs every single day — and why data alone is never enough 11:30 Why great COOs go into the office and talk to the people driving the numbers instead of just reading reports 12:22 The discharge paradox — your goal is to get patients better and out the door 13:55 Referral source as the number one KPI that reveals the health of the company 15:04 Cancellation rate and retention rate — what those two numbers actually tell you about your providers 17:53 How patient volume is managed across providers without putting marketing pressure on clinicians 18:20 The marketing team's role — digital, community, schools, tournaments, and seminars 20:15 When a patient referral asks specifically for their provider — how the schedule gets managed 21:15 Servant leadership in a clinical environment — I work for them, not the other way around 22:52 Private equity is buying up independent practices — is staying independent worth the fight 24:20 Why the owners being chiropractors who still treat patients changes everything about the culture 25:15 Insurance reimbursement declining, deductibles rising, and why evolving every year is not optional 27:11 Where NJ Sports Spine and Wellness is headed in the next three to five years 28:34 Two offices in Matawan and Marlboro — serving Middlesex and Monmouth County 29:23 How to reach the practice and book same day or next day #FrankMayo #NJSportsSpineWellness #TrustcastShow #NeverMissTwice #ClinicalOperations #HealthcareLeadership #ServantLeadership #SportsMedicine #IndependentPractice #PhysicalTherapy

What happens when a neurobiology honors graduate and valedictorian from the University of Miami completes his chief residency at Nassau Medical Center, watches the growing shortage of ophthalmologists turn into a national healthcare crisis, and decides that surgery alone is not enough — that he also needs to help reshape how the entire country delivers eye care through AI-powered intake tools and telemedicine? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Dr. Blake Hampton, ophthalmologist and cataract surgeon, about when a cataract actually needs surgery versus when you can safely wait, what the 10 to 15 minute procedure involves and why conscious sedation is almost always enough, and why the premium lens implants that cost extra are genuinely different from the standard ones rather than just a marketing upgrade. Blake also explains refractive lens exchange — the same surgery as cataract removal performed on a clear lens before it clouds over, for people who want to stop wearing glasses entirely — and why the multifocal lens inside your eye performs so much better than a multifocal contact on the surface of it. They also discuss why ophthalmology is projected to have one of the worst physician shortages of any specialty by 2035 with 30% of patient need going unmet, why rural financial incentive packages alone are not enough to bring surgeons to underserved communities, how locums and contractor models like the one Blake is doing in Lynchburg, Virginia may be more effective than relocation packages, and the AI-powered medical intake platform First History that Blake has been building eye care content for — a tool that delivers structured symptom-specific intake to patients before they walk through the door, pulls it automatically into the EHR, and uses natural language processing to route each patient to the right clinical track before a technician ever says hello. Dr. Blake Hampton is an ophthalmologist and cataract surgeon currently operating every Tuesday at an ambulatory surgery center in Lynchburg, Virginia, and serving as an advisor and clinical content developer for First History, a Canadian AI telehealth company. Connect with Dr. Blake Hampton: Harmon Eye — Lynchburg, Virginia First History AI platform: firsthistory.com Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Dr. Blake Hampton 00:48 Valedictorian, neurobiology honors, chief residency — the moment he knew medicine was the path 01:24 My doctor just told me I have a cataract — how do I know if it's time for surgery 02:30 Why cataracts rarely require emergency surgery and what the warning signs of waiting too long look like 03:28 What the surgery actually feels like — conscious sedation, numbing drops, and 10 to 15 minutes 04:38 What actually happens during those 10 to 15 minutes — phacoemulsification, the capsule, and the lens implant 06:07 My doctor is recommending a premium lens — what am I actually paying for and is it worth it 07:10 Multifocal lens implants, astigmatism correction, and the dysphotopsia problem with early versions 09:22 If I got an old lens implant years ago, can I go back and get an upgrade 10:32 Intraocular lens exchange — why the capsule makes it harder the longer you wait 11:48 Exchangeable lens rings on the horizon — the next generation for people who don't want to commit 12:08 What can actually go wrong in cataract surgery and how often does it happen 14:31 RLE — refractive lens exchange for people who want to stop wearing glasses before they have a cataract 15:45 Why multifocal contacts don't work as well as multifocal lens implants inside the eye 00:07 After residency — from North Carolina to locums work in Lynchburg, Virginia 01:03 The ophthalmologist shortage — 30% of patient need may go unmet by 2035 02:41 Frontier Care and the attempt to bring ophthalmologists to underserved communities 03:07 Why healthcare policy and regulation are creating the shortage despite good intentions 04:36 The medical industrial complex — why the system is reactive rather than preventive 07:59 Why locums and contractor models may solve the geographic access problem better than relocation 08:28 First History — the AI-powered medical intake platform Blake helped build the eye care content for 09:53 How the intake works — text link, smartphone, auto-populated EHR before the patient arrives 12:50 Where AI actually comes in versus what is just smart automation — the distinction that matters 13:49 Natural language processing routing patients to the right clinical track based on their symptoms 14:08 How many intakes have been completed and where the platform is currently deployed #BlakeHampton #CataractSurgery #TrustcastShow #Ophthalmology #PremiumLensImplant #FirstHistoryAI #EyeCare #OphthalmologistShortage #MedicalAI #CataractRecovery

What happens when an Eagle Scout who turned 18 in Marine Corps bootcamp, drove a 5,000-gallon jet fuel tanker through Southern Iraq all the way to Baghdad providing aviation support to attack helicopters during the invasion, comes home, goes to law school, spends 13 years fighting insurance companies in courtrooms, becomes one of only a few hundred attorneys in America authorized to sue the federal government on behalf of people hurt by vaccines, and then teaches himself Python so he can build software to help accident victims who don't need a lawyer figure out what their case is actually worth? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Kyle Moore, trial attorney and trial consultant based in Georgia, about why the first call you make after a car accident to the other driver's insurance company could quietly damage your case before it even starts, how he turns police reports that don't assign fault into leverage by deposing the officer and asking two or three very specific questions, and why the entire model of multiplying medical bills by three to calculate pain and suffering is an eighties formula that no longer reflects how real juries actually decide cases. Kyle explains what the difference is between a settlement mill and a boutique litigation firm, why he chose to stay small and keep every case under his personal control, and how a trucking case in rural conservative North Georgia became one of the top 50 verdicts in America in 2020 — built around a single lie a driver told his medical examiner to get his DOT certificate. They also discuss the Baker Principle — if his nine-year-old can understand it and feel wronged by it, a jury will too — why he is now building a software platform called My Smart Settlement to help accident victims value their own cases without giving away a third to a lawyer they don't need, how vaccine injury cases work under a federal compensation system that most people don't know exists, and why his motivation throughout his entire career from Eagle Scout to Marine to trial lawyer has been the same: take trash and turn it into treasure. Kyle Moore is a trial attorney and trial consultant based in Georgia, handling personal injury, trucking cases, and federal vaccine injury claims nationwide. Connect with Kyle Moore: kylemoorelaw.com Phone: 678-316-7318 mysmartsettlement.com (in development) Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Kyle Moore 00:42 Enlisting one week after graduating high school — turning 18 in Marine Corps bootcamp 01:30 9/11 hits while he's a newly minted Marine — everything changes 02:24 Driving a 5,000-gallon jet fuel tanker through Southern Iraq to Baghdad as a fuel engineer 04:10 Eagle Scout — 10-mile days on the Appalachian Trail at 15 and the rank bump that sealed it 05:23 Switching gears to the practice — what to do when the other driver's insurance company calls 06:28 Why what you say in the first 24 hours can quietly hurt your case months later 08:19 Should you talk to the other insurance company at all or go straight to an attorney 09:39 Are some insurance companies more difficult to work with than others — culture versus policy 11:33 The insurance agent's role and whether they have incentives in the claims process 14:21 A police report with no fault assigned — how Kyle turns that into leverage 16:12 Getting the right two or three sentences from a police officer who doesn't want to give them 18:00 Building likeability with a witness before they ever show up to the deposition 20:13 The storytelling framework — bad guys versus good guys and why it always works 21:13 The difference between a settlement mill and a boutique trial-focused practice 24:00 Why Kyle stepped back from high-volume work — too many stories he couldn't tell 24:46 Building My Smart Settlement — software for people who don't need a lawyer but don't know what to ask for 27:30 How the platform values pain and suffering using real litigation logic instead of the times-three formula 31:10 Adjusters actually want organized unrepresented claimants — why that is the insight behind the software 33:34 Trial consulting — the North Georgia trucking case and the top 50 verdict of 2020 38:00 The lie at the center of the case — when the defendant lied to his medical examiner, he lied to all of us on the road 39:48 The Baker Principle — if my nine-year-old gets it and feels wronged by it, the jury will too 41:00 Reptile theory, fear, and what actually compels jurors to act 42:12 Vaccine injury cases — one of only a few hundred attorneys authorized to sue the federal government 35:06 Most people think vaccine manufacturers have total immunity — they don't 36:45 Taking vaccine cases from any state and why the government nickel-and-dimes attorney fees 42:12 How to reach Kyle Moore and learn about My Smart Settlement #KyleMoore #KyleMooreLaw #TrustcastShow #PersonalInjuryAttorney #VaccineInjury #TrialConsulting #CarAccidentLawyer #GeorgiaLawyer #MySmatSettlement #TruckingAccident

What happens when a repeat offender walks into federal prison on February 12th, 2001 — a man who used to believe he could only function, connect, and be the life of the party when he was high — comes out the other side of recovery, earns a degree in organizational leadership, co-creates the first Missouri-based credential in harm reduction that goes international, runs a 110-man residential program for homeless men in active addiction, and then opens one of the fastest growing treatment centers in Kansas? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Ken Vick, founder of Avalon Wellness and Recovery Center in Lawrence, Kansas, about what harm reduction actually means — and why it has nothing to do with letting people keep using — how motivational interviewing works as a communication style that helps people discover their own internal truth instead of being told what to do by someone who talks more than they listen, and why 28-day programs are based on insurance billing cycles rather than psychology. Ken explains what actually happens in the brain when someone tries to quit on their own ten times and fails, why tough love does damage, how to support a family member in active addiction without enabling them, and what the first 72 hours in a residential program should feel like if the facility is doing it right. They also discuss what to look for when evaluating a treatment center — including the one thing you can feel when you walk through a tour — why medication assisted treatment is no more trading one drug for another than insulin is trading sugar, why nearly half of Avalon's 35-person staff has personal lived experience with addiction and what that does to the room, why behavioral health is one of the most toxic work environments in existence despite being a field dedicated to healing, and what Ken would change about how the entire system is funded if he could change one thing: stop measuring success by abstinence alone and start measuring quality of life. Ken Vick is the founder of Avalon Wellness and Recovery Center in Lawrence, Kansas, a Joint Commission Gold Seal Accredited residential treatment program. Connect with Ken Vick: avalonwrc.com Phone: 785-340-0300 Lawrence, Kansas Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Ken Vick 00:44 Walking into federal prison in 2001 — and whether anyone actually believed it would save his life 01:11 Co-creating the first Missouri-based harm reduction credential that went international 02:44 What harm reduction actually means — and what it absolutely does not mean 04:15 Nobody enters a program wanting to change — and why that is not a problem 05:42 What motivational interviewing is and why everyone in the world should learn it 06:50 The question format that drives motivational interviewing — doing less talking than the person you are helping 08:41 A family member just hit rock bottom — what is the single most important thing to do in the next 24 hours 10:35 How do you support someone without enabling them — and why tough love causes damage 11:20 Setting healthy boundaries with someone in active addiction — what that actually looks like 13:01 The family has tried treatment multiple times and nothing stuck — why should they try again 14:30 The real timeline for treatment — why 28 days is based on insurance, not science 15:24 What is the difference between detox and actual treatment 16:22 How do you know if a treatment center is legitimate versus just chasing insurance money 18:33 How Avalon funds itself — insurance, cash pay, and why they write off thousands of dollars 20:19 What actually happens in the first 72 hours of residential treatment 21:41 Why someone who has tried to quit on their own ten times keeps failing — what is happening in their brain 23:28 What Ken believed about himself when he walked into prison that turned out to be completely wrong 24:33 What to say to someone who thinks they do not deserve treatment because of what they have done 25:56 When someone says medication assisted treatment is just trading one drug for another 27:43 Half of Avalon's 35-person staff has lived experience — what that changes in the room 28:52 Joint Commission Gold Seal Accreditation — what it actually unlocks for clients trying to use insurance 30:28 Why behavioral health can be one of the most toxic work environments in existence 33:20 What Ken would change about how the behavioral health system is funded — outcomes over abstinence 34:31 How to reach Avalon and Ken Vick #KenVick #AvalonWRC #AddictionRecovery #TrustcastShow #HarmReduction #MotivationalInterviewing #SubstanceUseDisorder #BehavioralHealth #RecoveryCenter #MentalHealthLeadership

What happens when a repeat offender walks into federal prison on February 12th, 2001 — a man who used to believe he could only function, connect, and be the life of the party when he was high — comes out the other side of recovery, earns a degree in organizational leadership, co-creates the first Missouri-based credential in harm reduction that goes international, runs a 110-man residential program for homeless men in active addiction, and then opens one of the fastest growing treatment centers in Kansas? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Ken Vick, founder of Avalon Wellness and Recovery Center in Lawrence, Kansas, about what harm reduction actually means — and why it has nothing to do with letting people keep using — how motivational interviewing works as a communication style that helps people discover their own internal truth instead of being told what to do by someone who talks more than they listen, and why 28-day programs are based on insurance billing cycles rather than psychology. Ken explains what actually happens in the brain when someone tries to quit on their own ten times and fails, why tough love does damage, how to support a family member in active addiction without enabling them, and what the first 72 hours in a residential program should feel like if the facility is doing it right. They also discuss what to look for when evaluating a treatment center — including the one thing you can feel when you walk through a tour — why medication assisted treatment is no more trading one drug for another than insulin is trading sugar, why nearly half of Avalon's 35-person staff has personal lived experience with addiction and what that does to the room, why behavioral health is one of the most toxic work environments in existence despite being a field dedicated to healing, and what Ken would change about how the entire system is funded if he could change one thing: stop measuring success by abstinence alone and start measuring quality of life. Ken Vick is the founder of Avalon Wellness and Recovery Center in Lawrence, Kansas, a Joint Commission Gold Seal Accredited residential treatment program. Connect with Ken Vick: avalonwrc.com Phone: 785-340-0300 Lawrence, Kansas 00:00 Introduction to Ken Vick 00:44 Walking into federal prison in 2001 — and whether anyone actually believed it would save his life 01:11 Co-creating the first Missouri-based harm reduction credential that went international 02:44 What harm reduction actually means — and what it absolutely does not mean 04:15 Nobody enters a program wanting to change — and why that is not a problem 05:42 What motivational interviewing is and why everyone in the world should learn it 06:50 The question format that drives motivational interviewing — doing less talking than the person you are helping 08:41 A family member just hit rock bottom — what is the single most important thing to do in the next 24 hours 10:35 How do you support someone without enabling them — and why tough love causes damage 11:20 Setting healthy boundaries with someone in active addiction — what that actually looks like 13:01 The family has tried treatment multiple times and nothing stuck — why should they try again 14:30 The real timeline for treatment — why 28 days is based on insurance, not science 15:24 What is the difference between detox and actual treatment 16:22 How do you know if a treatment center is legitimate versus just chasing insurance money 18:33 How Avalon funds itself — insurance, cash pay, and why they write off thousands of dollars 20:19 What actually happens in the first 72 hours of residential treatment 21:41 Why someone who has tried to quit on their own ten times keeps failing — what is happening in their brain 23:28 What Ken believed about himself when he walked into prison that turned out to be completely wrong 24:33 What to say to someone who thinks they do not deserve treatment because of what they have done 25:56 When someone says medication assisted treatment is just trading one drug for another 27:43 Half of Avalon's 35-person staff has lived experience — what that changes in the room 28:52 Joint Commission Gold Seal Accreditation — what it actually unlocks for clients trying to use insurance 30:28 Why behavioral health can be one of the most toxic work environments in existence 33:20 What Ken would change about how the behavioral health system is funded — outcomes over abstinence 34:31 How to reach Avalon and Ken Vick #KenVick #AvalonWRC #AddictionRecovery #TrustcastShow #HarmReduction #MotivationalInterviewing #SubstanceUseDisorder #BehavioralHealth #RecoveryCenter #MentalHealthLeadership

What happens when a licensed therapist who spent a decade in Appalachia, burned out inside a digital health startup, lost his grandfather to suicide at age seven, found himself involuntarily committed to an inpatient psychiatric unit at 27, became a dad twice over, and finally did enough of his own work to turn all of that into a private practice built specifically for millennial men who are holding everything together on the outside while quietly falling apart on the inside? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Jake Ross, licensed therapist and founder of the Ross Wellness Group, about why the men around us are all having the same quiet thoughts but none of them are saying them out loud, why social media is the most dishonest comparison metric in modern life, and why the word fine is almost never actually fine. Jake explains the four-phase Internal Operating System for Men he uses with clients — moving from symptom reduction to desensitizing the stories that drive those symptoms to dropping what's in the backpack that no longer needs to be carried — and why the first thing he has every man do is sit down for an hour with a cup of coffee and write out who they actually want to be, not what they want to have. They also discuss why men make up half the population and nearly 79% of suicides and what that gap is really telling us about how men do — and don't — ask for help, why therapy didn't work the first time for most guys who tried it and what they should do differently on the second attempt, why Jake moved entirely out of insurance billing and into private pay and what that means for the quality and confidentiality of care, the bedside notebook trick that actually breaks the 2am thought spiral better than anything else, and his vision of becoming the premier men's mental health provider across all 13 Appalachian states in honor of his Appalachian grandfather. Jake Ross is a licensed therapist and founder of the Ross Wellness Group in Delaware, Ohio, specializing in millennial men's mental health. Connect with Jake Ross: therosswellnessgroup.org Instagram: @TheRossWellnessGroup LinkedIn: Jake Ross (glasses, blue collared shirt) Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Jake Ross 00:47 Men don't need to be fixed — where that idea came from and what he was watching happen around him 01:30 His daughter being born, the group text to his friends, and realizing nobody talks about this stuff 02:14 Losing his grandfather to suicide at age seven and carrying it for 20 years without words for it 03:38 Finding himself in an inpatient psychiatric unit at 27 and what that moment revealed 04:09 Why a man can be killing it at work and still waking up at 3am with a tight chest 05:15 What his typical client looks like — the millennial man holding every role together 06:02 The four-phase Internal Operating System for Men — from symptoms to stories to tools 07:32 Keeping up with the Joneses — why it is not new and how it gets worse with social media 08:10 The perspective shift — what do people think is going on with me from the outside 09:55 The ideal me exercise — sit down with a cup of coffee and write out how you actually want to be remembered 10:58 When the spouse is the one pushing the keeping up and how to have that conversation 12:32 Why communication feels like weakness to men and what to do instead 14:01 The difference between regular life stress and the kind that is actually doing damage 14:37 Good stress versus bad stress — and why a stress-free existence is not a goal 15:35 The 2am thought spiral — the bedside notebook trick that actually works 17:35 When a man says he's fine, what he is usually actually saying 18:45 The spotlight dodge — getting everyone else to talk so you never have to 19:39 The number one reason men never pick up the phone and book a session 20:34 Mental wellness versus mental health — call when the low air light comes on not when the tire blows 21:04 Why therapy didn't work the first time and what to do differently 22:57 Men make up nearly 79% of suicides — what that number is actually telling us 24:48 Rapid fire — golf or fishing, Brittany's one word at your worst, what millennial men do better than their fathers 26:07 Something Jake tells clients that he still has to remind himself of 26:52 What the first session actually looks like from consult call to individual care plan 28:18 Insurance versus private pay — why Jake left insurance behind and what that means for confidentiality 30:23 The Ross Wellness Group expanding — the vision for men's mental health across all 13 Appalachian states 32:17 Group therapy and the idea of a third space where men can connect without it having to be clinical 34:04 How to actually make male friends as an adult when the connections have faded #JakeRoss #RossWellnessGroup #MensMentalHealth #TrustcastShow #MillennialMen #MentalWellness #SuicidePrevention #TherapyForMen #MensTherapy #AppalachianMentalHealth

What happens when a dental hygienist with 30 years of chairside experience starts walking into practices across the country and notices the same pattern everywhere she looks — hygienists who have never been given permission to tell patients what they actually see, perio percentages hovering between zero and five percent when they should be thirty to thirty-five, fee schedules sitting in the fortieth percentile when the practice could be in the eightieth, and full schedules that look productive but aren't generating anywhere close to what they should? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Emme Sanders, RDH, one of the most sought-after dental hygiene coaches in the country, about what co-diagnosis actually means and why it is the single biggest unlocked opportunity inside most dental practices, why fifty percent of the adult population has some form of periodontal disease but most hygiene departments bill periodontal codes on less than ten percent of their patients, and why a full hygiene schedule and a productive one are two completely different things. Emme explains the trifecta framework that guides all of her coaching — if it's good for the patient, good for the provider, and good for the practice, it's probably the right thing to do — and walks through a real case in Georgia where she restructured hygienist compensation, elevated the services being offered, and had both the hygienists and the dentist making more money within three months. They also discuss why toxic employees almost never need to be fired if you change the direction of the practice clearly and let each person choose whether they want to get on board, why financial conversations are actually a clinical responsibility of the hygienist, what an AgreePact is and why it is the first thing Emme does with every team she coaches, how hygienists can unlock their identity as healthcare providers instead of just cleaners, and what it actually looks like when a dentist has truly unlocked their hygiene department six months after coaching ends. Emme Sanders is a registered dental hygienist, dental hygiene coach, and author of Welcome to Work: Inspiring Positive Change in the Workplace. Connect with Emme Sanders: emmysandersrdh.com Book a 30-minute consult: Calendly via her website Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Emme Sanders RDH 00:44 Hygiene departments running at half their potential — where that claim came from 01:13 Why hygienists haven't been given permission to co-diagnose with the dentist 02:10 What co-diagnosis actually looks like chairside — and why the trifecta framework matters 03:06 The first thing Emme looks at when walking into any practice — the perio percentage 04:01 What periodontal disease actually is and why most practices are massively undercoding it 06:04 How much production is actually being left on the table per year 07:25 Why a full schedule is not the same as a productive schedule 08:10 A real story — the Georgia dentist with overpaid underproducing hygienists and how it resolved 09:34 The number one clinically acceptable but missed opportunity in the hygiene chair 10:23 Why diagnosed restorative treatment never gets scheduled — time, fear, and money 11:09 The benchmarks every dentist should actually be tracking — perio percentage, compensation ratio, and open time 12:06 What to say to the dentist who thinks their practice is doing just fine 00:01 What a truly activated hygienist looks and sounds like versus one who is just punching in 01:17 Welcome to Work — the book and the AgreePact framework explained 02:24 AgreeDrift and AgreeShift — what happens when teams fall off track 02:50 Why the mindshift from cleaner to healthcare provider is so hard for hygienists and dentists alike 04:22 Structuring compensation so hygienists feel some sense of ownership in outcomes 05:43 How to identify a toxic employee — and why changing the practice direction is better than firing 08:28 Rapid fire — one word for her coaching style, fly fishing, biggest mistake dentists make with new hires 10:01 The underrated skill no dental school teaches — business acumen and communication 10:25 Why financial conversations are a clinical responsibility of the hygienist 11:18 What a high-performing hygiene appointment looks like from start to finish 12:21 What a solo practitioner with two hygienists can typically expect from coaching 14:35 The national fee database by zip code and why most practices are in the fortieth percentile 15:12 What the custom coaching process actually looks like from first call to workshop day 17:33 Single location versus multi-location — what changes and what stays the same 18:22 What the dentist who has truly unlocked their hygiene department looks like six months later 19:02 What Emmy Sanders RDH looks like five years from now #EmmeSanders #DentalHygieneCoach #TrustcastShow #DentalPracticeGrowth #HygieneProduction #PerioDentist #DentalCoaching #WelcomeToWork #DentalHygienist #PracticeManagement

What happens when a chemical engineering student selling Desmond Howard Heisman t-shirts outside Michigan Stadium gets threatened with a lawsuit by university lawyers, holds his ground, wins the argument, and decides in that moment that he wants to be a lawyer — then spends the next 20 years building a 110-person defense firm that represents Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler in litigation across 41 states, powered by AI software his team built in-house starting in 2013? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Scott Erskine, founder of Erskine Law, about how he landed Ford Motor Company as a client as a two-year associate by simply asking them — and how Ford said yes — what happened when the partners at his firm tried to have lunches with his clients without him while his son was in the hospital, and what a partner at a rival firm told him on the day Scott was ready to accept a partnership offer: you don't need me, you have clients, you should have your own firm. Scott also explains what rules-based AI actually is versus generative AI, why using gen AI for most of what lawyers do is like paying to resurrect Babe Ruth to teach your five-year-old to hit, and how his firm answers four complete sets of discovery in two to three hours — work that would legitimately take a competing firm two to three days and twelve billable hours. They also discuss Council Vision, the software company Erskine spun off to solve the portfolio management problem that every general counsel with 200 active cases across five outside firms is quietly drowning in, why court time is the single biggest way outside counsel bleeds money from corporate clients without anyone noticing, how real-time liability exposure tickers are changing how general counsels present risk to CFOs and boards, and the four-pillar interview process that has kept employee number one still at the firm nearly 20 years later — with the most important pillar being the one that has nothing to do with knowledge of the law. Scott Erskine is the founder of Erskine Law, a 110-person defense litigation firm representing major automotive manufacturers across 41 states, and founder of Council Vision, an AI-powered litigation management platform. Connect with Scott Erskine: [email protected] erskinelaw.com councilvision.com Detroit, Michigan Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Scott Erskine 00:58 Selling Desmond for Heisman t-shirts outside Michigan Stadium and the moment that changed everything 02:30 Why the advice to drop chemical engineering was actually bad advice 04:31 What a typical day looks like running a 110-person firm 05:30 Rules-based AI versus generative AI — why using gen AI for most legal work is overkill 06:51 The open door policy and the two-solutions rule that keeps it from drowning the day 08:28 Why the open door policy does not get abused — and what makes it work 09:36 The multi-stage interview process and why legal knowledge is the least important pillar 11:54 The four pillars — culture fit, being a good human, playing well with others, and knowing the law 13:05 How the four pillars developed from the early days of a small firm 15:55 Starting small — why personality fit matters more than anything when the office has five people 17:10 Working at big law before starting out — what was missing and what he learned 18:23 Bringing in Ford Motor Company as a two-year associate because he was bold enough to ask 20:09 Partners reaching out to his clients while his son was in the hospital — and why he left 21:12 The partner who offered him a job and then told him not to take it 22:09 How he launched ethically — resigning first, then calling Ford and Chrysler directly 23:25 Financing the startup with a bonus and savings and 60 days of runway 24:36 What a general counsel managing 200 active cases across five outside firms actually does all day 25:40 Why Erskine spun off Council Vision to solve the portfolio visibility problem 27:30 How data gets into the system — CSV, Excel, PDF, OCR, and automated intake 30:00 Real-time liability tickers for CFOs and the SEC disclosure use case 32:25 How the database links to document repositories and eliminates the separate time-entry problem 33:52 The single biggest way outside counsel bleeds money from corporate clients — court time 35:00 Using rules-based AI to answer discovery in two hours that takes competitors three days 37:10 Why corporations are being overcharged by law firms that refuse to use the tools that exist 38:25 Council Vision for law firms and corporations — who the software customers actually are 38:43 How to reach Scott Erskine and Erskine Law #ScottErskine #ErskineLaw #CouncilVision #TrustcastShow #LegalAI #Automotive Defense #CorporateLitigation #LegalTech #OutsideCounsel #AIinLaw

What happens when a psychiatric social worker who spent 12 years inside the mental health system before going to law school teams up with a former Philadelphia DA prosecutor who took 60 jury trials to verdict, got nominated to the Chester County bench by two separate governors, and sat in every division of the Court of Common Pleas — and they both end up at one of the oldest law firms in Pennsylvania doing what they each love most? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with John McKenna and Lou Mincarelli of MacElree Harvey about the full landscape of what they do — from Orphan's Court will contests and guardianships for incapacitated adults to criminal defense and civil litigation — and why the collaborative arbitration model John pioneered is quietly changing how families and businesses resolve disputes in the Delaware Valley. Lou explains what collaborative arbitration actually is — a hybrid where parties still participate and present their case like in mediation, but the arbitrator can make a binding decision at the end if the parties cannot reach agreement themselves — and why knowing that the arbitrator can step in and decide actually tends to push parties toward resolution faster than either pure mediation or traditional arbitration alone. They also discuss what actually happens inside a police interrogation room and why police are legally permitted to lie to suspects, why Miranda rights only kick in during custodial interrogation and not at the moment of arrest, what the one conversation families refuse to have that costs them the most in estate disputes — communicating the reasons behind their estate plan while they are still alive — what Lou's biggest pet peeve was in his courtroom when attorneys repeatedly broke the rules of civility, why 60 jury trials taught him that you can never take any particular set of facts for granted with a jury, and why the cost of preparing for trial is the thing clients almost never factor in when they refuse to consider mediation or arbitration. John McKenna and Lou Mincarelli are partners at MacElree Harvey, one of Pennsylvania's oldest and most respected law firms, serving clients across Southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland. Connect with John McKenna and Lou Mincarelli: maceleeharvey.com West Chester, Pennsylvania Chapters 00:00 Introduction to John McKenna and Lou Mincarelli of MacElree Harvey 00:38 First impressions — the judge meets the psychiatric social worker turned litigator 01:44 Lou's background — crime victim advocate, Philadelphia DA, 60 jury trials, two appointments to the bench 03:20 What Lou practices at MacElree Harvey — criminal, civil, family court, and mediation 04:40 What Orphan's Court actually is and why it is unique to Pennsylvania 05:27 John's role — wills, trusts, guardianships, and court-appointed mediator in Orphan's Court 06:52 My parent just died and the will is completely different from what we were always told — what is the first move 07:41 How mediation works in will contest cases and why it is usually resolved in one day 08:48 Why both mediation and arbitration exist — uncertainty, cost, time, and the risk of losing a case you should have won 10:42 Caucusing — separating parties and doing the arm twisting in separate rooms 11:50 The arbitrator explaining the difference between mediation and arbitration 15:18 Collaborative arbitration explained — putting people back in the process with a binding backstop 17:23 Is collaborative arbitration unique to Pennsylvania or to John's practice 18:25 The key advantage of collaborative arbitration — parties know how the arbitrator is leaning in real time 20:18 How arbitration differs from a jury trial — the cost and time savings explained 22:15 I just got arrested — what are the first two things I should do before saying a single word 22:35 Why police are legally permitted to lie to suspects and how interrogation tactics actually work 24:47 The misconception about Miranda rights — they only apply during custodial interrogation 25:55 When to speak and when not to speak — including federal grand jury subpoenas 27:27 Lou took 60 jury trials to verdict — what do juries most consistently misunderstand 28:42 How model jury instructions work in Pennsylvania and why attorneys have to hammer the law home in plain language 29:42 Can a judge overrule a jury — when and how 31:02 What happens when something prejudicial slips into a trial and whether a mistrial is the answer 32:25 Rapid fire — John on Sunday mornings, Lou on prosecution versus defense 33:27 The one conversation families refuse to have that causes the most estate disasters #JohnMcKenna #LouMincarelli #MacElreeHarvey #TrustcastShow #CollaborativeArbitration #OrphansCourt #WillContest #CriminalDefense #ChesterCountyLaw #PennsylvaniaLaw

What happens when a guy who spent his twenties dipping hot metal into liquid plastic on third shift, taking one or two classes a semester for a decade while raising a kid, and sleeping in parking lots during breaks on the way to a degree he didn't finish until he was 29 — decides he's too stubborn to quit, aces the LSAT, earns an 80% scholarship to law school, walks out with almost no debt, gets hired by a big law firm, and then almost immediately leaves to open his own injury practice in Hamilton, Ohio because people he grew up with kept calling him needing help that corporate firms would never touch? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Josh Hodges, founder of Hodges Law Firm in Southwest Ohio, about what to do in the first 24 hours after a car accident, why the insurance company that calls you immediately is not doing you a favor, and why the gap in treatment defense is one of the most common ways injured people quietly destroy their own cases without knowing it. Josh explains why uninsured motorist coverage is the most undervalued line on your policy, why moving from $100,000 to $250,000 in coverage might cost you $15 a month and could be the most important financial decision you make, and why signing anything the insurance company sends you — including clicking a link — may be settling your case forever. They also discuss why most of his clients are not the type of people who want to sue anyone — they're actually under-exaggerating their injuries and trying to tough it out — why insurance companies have spent decades making people feel guilty for using coverage they already paid for, how pre-existing conditions get handled when an accident aggravates something that was already there, what the $10 million his team recovered in 2025 actually looks like across auto accidents, dog bites, and slip and falls, and how Josh built the Hometown Lawyer brand by filming free commercials for small local businesses on his phone every single day for five years — which went from three job applicants to 75 overnight and made social media his single most effective employee recruiting tool. Josh Hodges is the founder of Hodges Law Firm, a personal injury firm serving Southwest Ohio with offices across the region. Connect with Josh Hodges: hodgeslawfirm.com Hamilton, Ohio Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Josh Hodges 00:43 Factory floor to law firm — the 20-year slow grind that almost broke him a few times 01:44 Building the firm — seven attorneys, 25 staff, eight years in 02:57 Government job paying 80% tuition, the LSAT scholarship, and how he kept the debt low 05:11 Getting hired by big law, realizing it wasn't the plan, and walking out in 2017 06:00 I just got hit and the other driver's insurance is already calling — what do I do in the next 24 hours 07:14 Should I talk to my own insurance company or the other driver's company — and what's the difference 08:10 How to handle property damage versus the injury claim and why you treat them separately 09:39 My knee felt fine at the accident and now two days later I can barely walk — did I hurt my case 10:59 The single most common thing accident victims do that damages their case 11:55 Why insurance companies have brainwashed the public into feeling guilty for filing claims 12:46 The room full of people who all think there are too many frivolous lawsuits but nobody in the room has ever filed one 13:55 Social media, photos, and what the defense is actually doing with your Facebook posts 15:00 The other driver has no insurance — now what 15:56 Why $25,000 minimum coverage in Ohio sounds like a lot until your medical bills arrive 16:32 Uninsured motorist coverage — why Josh has a higher limit than most people and what you should ask yourself 17:22 How to think about your coverage based on your family situation and what you actually need to protect 18:14 The umbrella policy and why moving from $100k to $250k might cost $15 a month 18:47 How do I know if my case is even worth hiring a lawyer 20:00 What cases Hodges Law actually takes — from catastrophic injuries to minor rear-end accidents 21:12 What to do when the insurance company rushes in with a big check on day two 22:05 The saying — the easiest way to get a million dollars is to screw up a ten million dollar case 23:06 Pre-existing conditions — can they use my old shoulder injury against me and how do you fight back 24:21 If I signed something to settle and changed my mind — is it over 25:32 The client who clicked a link and accidentally settled — and how Josh got them out of it 26:28 What drove the $10 million in recoveries in 2025 — auto, truck, motorcycle, dog bites, slip and falls 28:05 What Southwest Ohio needs from a local injury firm that a national TV advertiser cannot deliver #JoshHodges #HodgesLawFirm #HomeTownLawyer #TrustcastShow #PersonalInjuryOhio #CarAccidentLawyer #UninsuredMotorist #SouthwestOhio #InjuryLaw #SmallTownLawyer

What happens when someone who spent 16 years inside corporate HR — watching how companies document, how they protect themselves, and how they quietly push employees out after pregnancy leave — decides she has seen enough and goes to law school to take all of that insider knowledge to the other side of the table? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Lorna Griffin, founder of L. Griffin Law in South Central Texas, about what at-will employment actually means and what it does not mean, why the first 48 hours after a termination can either protect or permanently destroy a legal claim, and what employees almost always get wrong about severance agreements — signing away every right they have, including a non-compete that bars them from their entire industry for two years, in exchange for a check they needed to cash anyway. Lorna explains why you have to file through the EEOC before you can ever get to court, what the difference is between plain vanilla retaliation and legally protected retaliation in Texas, and why the phrase legitimate non-discriminatory reason for termination immediately makes her suspicious. They also discuss what happens when an employee comes back from FMLA leave and gets put on a performance improvement plan two months later — and why that is not a coincidence to an employee-side employment attorney — how to negotiate a neutral reference so a former employer cannot torpedo your next job offer, what the severe and pervasive standard for harassment actually requires in Texas courts, why employers with attorney's fees exposure perk up and pay attention in ways they otherwise would not, and what proper medical leave administration under the ADA actually looks like versus what most HR departments are actually doing. Lorna Griffin is the founder of L. Griffin Law in San Antonio, Texas, serving employees in South Central Texas in employment discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, and severance matters. Connect with Lorna Griffin: [email protected] lgriffinlaw.com San Antonio, Texas Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Lorna Griffin 00:38 Watching an employee get pushed out after pregnancy leave — the moment that changed everything 01:25 What 16 years in HR taught her about how employers actually think that law school never could 02:14 I just got fired and have no idea if it was legal — what do I do first 03:00 Texas is an at-will state — what that actually means and what it absolutely does not 03:50 How long do I have before I lose my right to do something — 60 days, 180 days, 300 days 04:42 Employees who are afraid to even call a lawyer because they think it will get back to the employer 05:57 Attorney-client privilege and why consulting an attorney while still employed is protected 06:50 Free consultations — what that process actually looks like at L. Griffin Law 07:02 Why you have to file through the EEOC before you can ever go to court 07:43 The fear that filing an EEOC charge will ruin your reputation with future employers 08:32 How to negotiate a neutral reference so a former employer can only confirm position and length of employment 09:38 The single most damaging thing employees do in the first 48 hours — resigning 10:20 Why taking company property or posting on social media can destroy a legal claim 10:53 I reported my boss to HR three months ago and now everything is different — is that retaliation 11:39 The difference between legally protected retaliation and plain vanilla retaliation in Texas 12:33 Hostile work environment claims in Texas — what qualifies and what does not 13:56 Is there such a thing as a hostile work environment in Texas — yes, but only in specific circumstances 14:39 My harasser is a peer and not my boss — does the company have to do anything about it 15:50 Rapid fire — Sunday mornings, Rottweilers and Pitbulls, the Griffin household on a loud weekend 17:07 The one phrase employers use that immediately makes Lorna suspicious 17:20 Severance agreement or wrongful termination lawsuit — which one to fight for 17:50 My employer said I have to sign by Friday — do I really have to decide that fast 18:17 Why employees over 40 get 21 days to consider a severance agreement under the ADEA 18:47 What you are actually giving up when you sign a severance agreement — every right, forever 19:32 Can a severance agreement actually waive rights for illegal termination — yes it can 20:11 The hidden non-compete buried in a severance agreement that bars you from your industry 20:53 How to ask for more time when an employer is pressing you to sign immediately 22:13 I took FMLA leave for a health issue, came back, and got put on a PIP — is that a coincidence #LornaGriffin #LGriffinLaw #EmploymentLaw #TrustcastShow #WrongfulTermination #TexasEmploymentLaw #SeveranceAgreement #EEOCFiling #WorkplaceDiscrimination #EmployeeRights

What happens when a first-generation college student who got his Coast Guard captain's license the day he turned 19, watched a tornado touch down from a Plymouth Harbor tour boat, worked as a deckhand from age 13, and then decided he was better suited for a courtroom than a federal ethics desk builds a trial practice that ends up arguing before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on a case that could change how every subcontractor in the state gets paid? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Nathan Cole, founding partner of Cole Law Partners, about the Massachusetts Prompt Pay Act — what it requires, what happens when a general contractor ignores a payment requisition or fails to certify a rejection in good faith, and why that failure is far from a trivial technicality. Nathan walks through the Canestraro v. Columbia case in detail — a nearly million-dollar lost productivity claim by New England's largest mechanical subcontractor, litigated through years of arbitration, won at summary judgment, escalated to the trial court, and now before the SJC with a ruling that could set precedent on both the Prompt Pay Act and the standard for vacating arbitration awards in Massachusetts. He also explains the order of operations argument at the heart of the case: that a general contractor cannot hold onto disputed money, force a sub through years of litigation, lose at summary judgment, then pay under court order and immediately claw the money back — because if that is allowed, the Prompt Pay Act means nothing. They also discuss what subcontractors should do before a fight ever starts — including the one contract clause Nathan says is a no-brainer that most subcontracts are missing right now, why ambiguity is the single biggest enemy of any contractor who wants to avoid litigation, how to build a lost productivity claim before ever filing suit using MCAA factors and expert witnesses, when a business divorce becomes a legal claim and how forensic accountants help determine whether the fight is worth having, and how Cole Law Partners went from four lawyers and no staff in October 2025 to fourteen people in seven months. Nathan Cole is the founding partner of Cole Law Partners, a boutique litigation firm based in Massachusetts specializing in construction law, business disputes, and employment matters. Connect with Nathan Cole: LinkedIn: Nathan Cole Cole Law Partners Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Nathan Cole 00:38 From whale watching boats and a federal ethics desk to deciding he needed a courtroom 02:20 Clerking for a Massachusetts Superior Court judge as a career reboot 03:26 Subcontractor finishes a job and the GC goes quiet — what do they do in the first 30 days 04:47 What makes something a Prompt Pay Act job versus any other classification 06:07 What the GC is required to do within 22 days and what happens when they ignore it 08:31 The three things a rejection must include — written, contractual basis, factual basis, and good faith certification 10:27 What a savvy subcontractor can do strategically when the GC blows the deadline 11:15 Can a sub legally stop working if they're not getting paid — and should they 12:53 Negotiating construction contracts — getting to yes without wasting money on redlines 15:45 The top things Nathan always pushes for in a subcontract negotiation 18:12 Coaching the subcontractor to have the conversation versus formally redlining a contract 19:34 Ambiguity is the client's biggest enemy — why elimination of ambiguity saves more than any clause 21:00 Risk allocation — why a sub should not be responsible for what it cannot control 22:13 When trade stacking and GC mismanagement create schedule damage the subcontractor absorbs 24:01 Rapid fire — tornado on the harbor tour, Ragged Mountain versus hiking, where did the Boston accent go 29:27 Construction crisis call at 5 p.m. on a Friday — what Nathan does first 30:07 One clause every contractor should add to their subcontract right now — attorney's fees 30:40 The Canestraro case — plumbing sub, nearly a million dollars, years of fighting — what happened on that job 32:16 What a lost productivity or cumulative impact change order actually is and why it is hard to execute 33:25 How Canestraro documented the claim before litigation using MCAA factors and an expert witness 34:51 Columbia's rejection that was missing the good faith certification — and why that was fatal 36:43 Why the arbitrator correctly ordered payment at summary judgment — the Tachi decision context 37:42 The order of operations argument — you cannot hold the money, force the litigation, lose, pay, and then claw it back 39:34 The case goes from arbitration to the trial court to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court #NathanCole #ColeLawPartners #PromptPayAct #TrustcastShow #ConstructionLaw #MassachusettsLaw #CanestraroCase #SubcontractorRights #BusinessDivorce #ConstructionLitigation

What happens when a Queens DA prosecutor who spent six years trying domestic violence and sexual assault cases pivots to the civil side — and discovers that everything she learned about how to break an expert witness, prepare a deponent, and anticipate an adversary's next move translates directly into defending physicians accused of malpractice — and then teams up with a partner who grew up in a medical family, came out of Hofstra already thinking in medicine and science, and built a specialty in appellate strategy and motion practice that plants the seeds for every appeal before the trial even starts? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Jennifer Higgins partners co-leading the Medical Malpractice Defense Division at Abrams Fensterman, about what actually happens inside a physician's mind the morning they open a summons, why talking to a colleague who has also been sued is one of the most legally dangerous things a doctor can do, and why the belief that the truth will simply come out at trial is one of the costliest assumptions in this entire field. Jennifer walks through the Perry Mason moment she actually got in a courtroom — where the plaintiff's expert, who had edited the Bible of his specialty, was forced to admit the book was authoritative and then announced he didn't care about the book and sent his water cup flying — and explains why she used pasta to teach a jury the difference between an arteriovenous malformation in the lung versus elsewhere in the body. Jennifer walks through the causation defense that won a case on appeal after losing summary judgment — a rheumatic fever claim where even a correct diagnosis on the day of the visit could not have changed the patient's outcome. They also discuss how Jennifer structure every case as a chess match — Jennifer thinking in the moment at trial while Melissa thinks long-term about the appellate record — why a hospital or employer is not automatically on the physician's side in a malpractice lawsuit, what the standard of care actually means to a jury versus what most physicians think it means, and why Abrams Fensterman's one-stop-shop model gives physicians something most malpractice defense firms cannot — a partner down the hall who handles OPMC licensing issues, another who does wills and trusts, and another who handles employment agreements and practice mergers. Jennifer Higgins are partners co-leading the Medical Malpractice Defense Division at Abrams Fensterman in Lake Success, New York. Connect with Jennifer Higgins: abramslaw.com Phone: 516-328-2300 Lake Success, New York Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Jennifer Higgins 00:51 Jennifer's path — six years as a Queens DA prosecuting domestic violence and sexual assault, then pivoting to physician defense 02:20 What pulled her out of the DA's office — student loans, but also a love of complex medicine 03:23 Working with DNA experts and medical experts as a prosecutor — and how that prepared her for retaining defense experts 03:53Jennifer's path — growing up in a medical family and going straight into healthcare defense 05:09 What is going through a physician's mind the first 24 hours after receiving a summons 05:28 The first call to the insurance carrier — notify immediately and request preferred counsel 06:00 Doctors who don't even know who the plaintiff is — how that happens and how the team handles it 08:05 Over 95% of physicians experience significant emotional distress when sued — what Jennifer sees across the table 08:44 Hand-holding through every step of litigation — soup to nuts, weekends included 09:30 When malpractice claims lead to OPMC licensing issues — and how the full-service team handles both simultaneously 10:00 Jennifer as the litigator counsel — how the two roles work together 11:25 How many cases actually reach trial — and why preparing every case for trial is the standard anyway 11:47 The discovery process — medical records, depositions, summary judgment motions, and the path to resolution 12:30 If we choose path A, where do we end up — thinking through every litigation decision in advance 13:32 Planting the seeds for appeal during trial — why having appellate counsel in the room matters 00:31 The physician deposition — talking too much is the single biggest mistake 01:10 How deposition differs from trial — open-ended questions versus controlled cross-examination 02:06 How Jennifer and Melissa prepare physicians for deposition — you don't throw them to the wolves 15:18 The cardinal rule — only talk to your carrier and your lawyer, nobody else 03:00 How to take apart a plaintiff's medical expert — cross-examination and prior contradictory testimony 04:37 The Perry Mason moment — the expert who edited the Bible of his specialty and then said he didn't care about the book #JenniferHiggins #AbramsFensterman #MedicalMalpracticeDefense #TrustcastShow #PhysicianDefense #HealthcareLaw #NewYorkMalpractice #StandardOfCare #MalpracticeAttorney

What happens when a Queens prosecutor who spent years putting felony offenders away pivots to defending the people on the other side of a catastrophic accusation — and teams up with an attorney who grew up in a medical office, watched her physician father do expert work on malpractice cases, and came out of law school already knowing the anatomy and medicine cold — and together they build one of New York's most respected physician defense practices? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Melissa Goldberg, partners co-leading the Medical Malpractice Defense Division at Abrams Fensterman, about what actually happens inside a physician's mind the morning they open a summons, why the instinct to call a colleague and start venting is one of the most legally dangerous things a doctor can do, and why the belief that the truth will simply come out at trial is one of the most costly assumptions in their field. Melissa explains how nearly every case is approached as a chess match — anticipating every move the plaintiff will make and structuring every decision with its long-term appellate implications already in view — and walks through the causation defense that won a case on appeal after losing summary judgment: a rheumatic fever claim where even a correct diagnosis on the visit in question could not have changed the outcome. They also discuss what a physician's deposition looks like and the single biggest mistake doctors make when they sit down to be questioned, how to take apart a plaintiff's medical expert at trial through cross-examination and prior contradictory testimony, what the phrase standard of care actually means to a jury versus what most physicians think it means, why a doctor's hospital or employer is not automatically on their side in a lawsuit, and how a stroke case with a devastating fact pattern gets turned around when the patient was never a TPA candidate to begin with. Melissa Goldberg are partners co-leading the Medical Malpractice Defense Division at Abrams Fensterman in New York. Connect with Melissa Goldberg: abramsfensterman.com Lake Success, New York Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Melissa Goldberg 00:30 Jennifer's path — from Queens DA putting felony offenders away to defending physicians for 17 years 03:00 Melissa's path — growing up in a medical family and going straight into healthcare defense from Hofstra 04:11 What is actually going through a doctor's mind the morning they open a summons 05:28 The first call to the insurance carrier — what to say and what never to say 06:00 Doctors who have no idea who the plaintiff even is — and how that happens 07:50 Over 95% of physicians experience significant emotional distress when sued — what Melissa sees across the table 10:12 How Melissa divide the work — litigator and strategist working as one team 11:04 How often do cases actually reach trial versus being discontinued, dismissed, or settled 13:32 Building the appellate record from day one — why every motion has downstream consequences 14:12 Notifying the insurance carrier immediately — and what to say and not say on that call 15:37 The physician's second instinct — calling a colleague to vent — and why that is legally dangerous 16:01 How long a New York malpractice case actually takes from complaint to resolution 00:31 The physician's deposition — the single biggest mistake doctors make when they sit down to be questioned 01:46 The tactic of asking a doctor to expand on an answer — and how Jennifer's team prepares for it 03:18 Taking the plaintiff's medical expert apart at trial — cross-examination and prior contradictory testimony 07:09 What standard of care actually means to a jury — and why most physicians misunderstand what they're being judged against 09:12 Abrams Fensterman as a one-stop shop for physicians — why that matters for referrals and defense 10:16 Winning at trial versus winning at appeal — and when an appeal is actually the right play 11:00 How the appellate process works in New York — briefs, four-year wait times, ten minutes of oral argument 03:13 Why the most prepared defendant wins — and why truth alone is not a strategy 04:10 When the hospital or employer is not automatically on your side 05:32 The causation defense — how terrible facts on paper can still produce a defense verdict 07:00 The rheumatic fever appeal — losing summary judgment and winning at the appellate division on causation 08:04 Fifteen years of mentorship — how Jennifer and Melissa built a partnership that finishes each other's sentences #MelissaGoldberg #AbramsFensterman #MedicalMalpracticeDefense #TrustcastShow #PhysicianDefense #HealthcareLaw #MalpracticeDefense #NewYorkMedicalLaw #StandardOfCare

What happens when a kid who grew up in 90s skate, hip hop, and punk culture becomes a talent agent for celebrities and musicians, spends a decade as a litigator and in-house counsel for a celebrity agency, and then quietly builds a law firm that has become the go-to for management companies and creators trying to navigate the wildest legal terrain in modern business — the creator economy? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Frank Poe, founder of Poe Law, about the single most dangerous clause hiding at the bottom of almost every brand contract — choice of law filed in Delaware, a state that barely recognizes the right of publicity that sits at the heart of every creator deal. Frank explains the REV Model he developed for evaluating any brand agreement — Rights, Expectations, Value, and Visibility — and why a brand that refuses to negotiate even one red line on a $2,500 deal is actually rejecting their own argument about limiting liability. He also explains why perpetual usage rights are an existential threat to a creator's entire channel, what natural exclusivity is and why it happens whether or not it's written into the contract, and why brands who insist on owning content forever are handing themselves a car while Frank keeps the keys. They also discuss the agency that funneled brand payments through the owner's personal bank account and then filed for personal bankruptcy — and the bankruptcy trustee who came after Frank's client for money that was never legally the agent's to keep, how Frank sued a brand in the state where their fulfillment center was located and leveraged their inventory as the collection target, why morality clauses get triggered not by scandals but by crowd surfing at concerts, the distinction between traditional entertainment law where the producer owns everything and creator law where the creator is the director and producer and distributor, and why equity deals are the one area where creators are getting genuinely dangerous advice on TikTok right now. Frank Poe is the founder of Poe Law PLLC, a creator economy law firm serving management companies, talent agencies, and creators across brand deals, influencer contracts, and right of publicity disputes. Connect with Frank Poe: LinkedIn: Frank Poe Poe Law PLLC Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Frank Poe 00:43 The wildest contract clause Frank has ever reviewed — and the call with eight attorneys on the other side 01:38 How brand deals in the creator economy actually work — deliverables, usage, and fees 02:48 Who Frank's clients are — creators, management companies, and agencies 03:18 Flat fee and subscription law versus hourly billing in the creator economy 04:21 Pull marketing on LinkedIn and why Frank's growth comes from long-term relationship building 06:12 Why entertainment lawyers have to be different — the lawyer of yes versus the lawyer of no 07:30 Business is the gas, legal is the brakes — and why you need both 08:38 Marketing agencies that try to remove brand liability from the deal — and why that is a red flag 10:13 What a typical creator brand deal actually looks like step by step 11:45 The brands that say they won't accept red lines under $25,000 — and why that is a mistake 13:19 When a creator is catching fire and a brand wants to lock them up exclusively — how to advise them 14:14 The REV Model — Rights, Expectations, Value, and Visibility explained 16:37 The single most dangerous clause hiding in almost every brand contract — Delaware choice of law 18:08 How to push back on Delaware jurisdiction when the brand's offices are somewhere else entirely 19:34 How often Frank actually gets pushback from the other side — and what CMOs and paralegals do instead 20:37 Why both sides get excited about getting the deal done and set aside their better judgment 21:50 Why non-negotiable really never means non-negotiable — and the deals that tanked over one or two notes 23:26 When a creator says yes to perpetual usage rights — what they are actually handing over 25:00 You can have the car but we keep the keys — how to structure ownership without giving everything away 27:09 Talent shows, reality TV, and why the golden rule is the producer owns everything they capture 30:40 If you produce it you own it — the core distinction between traditional entertainment law and creator law 32:49 Brand goes silent after a campaign — what Frank actually does to chase payment 33:32 Ordering product off the brand's website to find the fulfillment center and sue them there 34:24 Going after patents and IP rights when there is no inventory to liquidate 35:10 Credit checks, deposits, escrow, and prepayments — the proactive approach 36:00 The agency that put brand payments in a personal account and then filed for personal bankruptcy #FrankPoe #PoeLaw #CreatorEconomy #TrustcastShow #InfluencerContracts #BrandDeals #ContentCreatorLaw #RightOfPublicity #CreatorRights #EntertainmentLaw

What happens when a Barbadian visual artist and secondary school art teacher watches her students quietly turn the art room into a refuge — coming in during lunch, after class, whenever life gets hard — and realizes that the therapeutic power she is witnessing has a name, a profession, and a graduate program in the UK waiting for her? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Kim Valldejuli, an art psychotherapist currently working at a psychiatric hospital in Fredericksburg, Virginia and pursuing her PhD at Drexel University, about what actually happens in an art therapy session, why you do not need any artistic skill to benefit from it, and why patients on some of the most acute inpatient units in the hospital ask when she is coming back and show up to every session she runs. Kim explains how art creates a critical distance from trauma that talk therapy often cannot — allowing people who have no words for early childhood abuse or combat PTSD to begin processing through image and material instead of language — and why the Johari window concept makes having an external therapeutic perspective so essential when working through personal narratives that may no longer reflect reality. They also discuss the ten-year-old boy who hid under desks and could not stay in class after losing his mother to cancer, how a year of art therapy, mentorship, and family support got him functioning and seated — and how that story captures Kim's core belief that therapy does not live only inside the clinic. She also talks about her research on veterans with PTSD and traumatic brain injury, the community mental health groups she ran at companies in Trinidad on World Mental Health Day, NHS research showing doctors who did art therapy had measurably better outcomes, and her framework for Afro-Caribbean art therapy that forms the center of her doctoral research. Kim Valldejuli is an art psychotherapist, published researcher, award-winning artist, and PhD candidate at Drexel University, currently based in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Connect with Kim Valldejuli: LinkedIn: Kim Valldejuli Drexel University — contact through published research Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Kim Valldejuli 00:57 From visual artist and art teacher in Barbados to psychotherapist — what made her merge the two worlds 02:00 The art room that became a therapy community space for struggling students 02:59 What people get wrong about art therapy — and why no skill is required 03:50 What actually happens in the first session — assessment, contracting, and the first art activity 05:30 Working with children and why she always involves the parents 06:05 How people find out that art therapy even exists — referral networks and word of mouth 08:22 A real story — the ten-year-old who hid under his desk and could not stay in class 10:00 Building a therapeutic relationship over a year through dramatic play, reading under a tree, and art-making 11:45 Why she was doing a lot of mothering — and what that means therapeutically for a grieving child 13:35 Why therapy cannot treat just the individual — systems, safety, and Maslow's hierarchy 14:54 Patient population breakdown — inpatient, outpatient, adolescents, and adults 16:06 How inpatient art therapy works across different acuity levels — acute units versus partial hospitalization 17:18 Why Model Magic clay became a hit on the inpatient units 18:36 More processing on the outpatient — coping skills, the bridge story, and strengths mapping 19:34 The biggest fear patients have walking into art therapy — and why it is always judgment 20:51 Can art therapy make things worse — and are there people who should not do it 22:07 Private practice during the PhD — limited clients and no groups right now 22:49 What art therapy offers veterans with PTSD and traumatic brain injury that talk therapy cannot 24:03 Pre-verbal trauma and the power of image as language when words do not exist 24:30 Can someone self-administer art therapy at home — what is safe and what is not 26:20 The Johari window and why an external perspective is essential when processing trauma 27:39 What Kim would suggest for someone who wants to explore art therapy for themselves 29:31 Art therapy for high-stress professionals — and what happened at company mental health awareness events in Trinidad 31:00 NHS research showing doctors who engaged in art therapy had measurably better outcomes 32:52 Art therapy inside organizations — building group cohesion and shared understanding 33:15 How to get in touch with Kim Valldejuli #KimValldejuli #ArtTherapy #TrustcastShow #ArtPsychotherapy #TraumaHealing #PTSDRecovery #MentalHealthAtWork #AfroCaribbean #CreativeTherapy #DrexelUniversity

What happens when a 17-year-old who woke up to find his parents murdered, called 911 to save his father's life, and was coerced by police into a statement that sent him to prison for nearly 18 years — survives, gets exonerated, becomes an attorney admitted to the US Supreme Court bar, and then builds a Georgetown University program where undergraduate students have now walked 13 innocent people out of prison, accounting for over 300 combined years of wrongful imprisonment? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Martin Tankleff about the morning of September 7, 1988, how detectives lied to a 17-year-old by claiming his dying father had named him as the attacker — a tactic the US Supreme Court explicitly permits — and why the written statement the jury saw was never written in front of him and nothing in it matched the forensic evidence. Martin explains why he refuses to call these wrongful convictions and insists they be called what they actually are — intentional convictions — because in 95% of cases the prosecutorial misconduct, police misconduct, and forensic misconduct that put innocent people away was not accidental. He also explains what his students at Georgetown, NYU, Princeton, Rice, and UC Santa Cruz are actually doing in the field: tracking down witnesses who were never interviewed, finding suppressed gunshot residue tests, consulting ballistics experts who call the original trial testimony junk science, and building documentaries that get people freed. They also discuss the detective who was paid $100,000 to point the investigation at Marty and away from his father's business partner Jerry Steuerman, why every person who opposed Marty's exoneration either died or went to prison themselves, what Valentino Dixon's daughter Valentina said to everyone who doubted her when her father walked free after 27 years, why the Right to Remain Silent Act for juveniles would have changed everything about Marty's case, and why the American criminal justice system incarcerates more innocent people than England has in its entire prison population. Martin Tankleff is a defense attorney admitted to the US Supreme Court bar, a professor at Georgetown University, and co-creator of Making an Exoneree, a program now operating at five universities that has freed 13 innocent people from prison. Connect with Martin Tankleff: Georgetown University — Making an Exoneree program LinkedIn: Martin Tankleff Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Martin Tankleff 00:55 September 7 1988 — waking up at 17 to find your parents attacked 01:21 How police lied about his dying father naming him as the attacker — and why the Supreme Court allows it 02:33 Hours of unrecorded interrogation and why law enforcement chose not to record 03:25 The immediate recantation — and why the written statement never matched the forensic evidence 04:48 Hearing the guilty verdict at 19 — and the jury misconduct that tainted the trial 05:42 6,338 days in prison and the mentality that kept him from breaking 06:23 Childhood friend Mark Howard — from the high school Purple Parrot newsletter to fighting for his freedom 07:28 The Easter dinner party where someone overheard one of the murderers confess 08:37 Joseph Creedon, Peter Kent, Glenn Harris, and Jerry Steuerman — the real story of who killed his parents 09:06 Why his father was killed — $500,000 invested with a business partner running a drug operation 09:40 Police involvement — the detective paid $100,000 to target Marty and protect Steuerman 11:01 December 21 2007 — the phone call that said pack your things you're coming home 12:45 How dozens of pro bono lawyers from New York and DC fought for 18 years without being paid 13:38 None of the real killers were ever held accountable — and what happened to those who opposed his exoneration 14:20 Over $13 million in settlements and why no amount of money can compensate for 18 years 15:59 Rapid fire — first meal out of prison, guilty pleasure TV, and one word for the American criminal justice system 17:55 What's wrong with the criminal justice system in one word 18:30 The 4,000 documented exonerations and what it means that the guilty remained free 19:11 If he could argue one case before the Supreme Court what it would involve 19:50 How he decided to become a lawyer in 1993 talking to his neighbor Eric in prison 21:08 Being sworn into the New York bar in the same appellate courthouse where his conviction was overturned 22:46 Admitted to the US Supreme Court bar — and the two justices who once worked at the firm that freed him 24:51 How Making an Exoneree at Georgetown actually works 25:49 Valentino Dixon — the first exoneration that hit hardest and the daughter who defended her father her whole life #MartinTankleff #WrongfulConviction #TrustcastShow #MakingAnExoneree #CriminalJusticeReform #Exonerated #InnocenceProject #GeorgetownLaw #FalseConfession #JusticeReform

What happens when a cognitive neuropsychologist who supported 40,000 military families through crisis, grew up watching his chaplain father create pockets of healing in Fayetteville next to Fort Bragg, and helped scale a counseling company from $300,000 to $5 million in under four years turns his attention to the one question most HR leaders can't honestly answer — why are employees ignoring the mental health benefits we're already paying for? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Dr. David Hester, head of guides at LifeGuides, about why the barrier of entry to traditional EAPs is so high that people in crisis simply stop trying, how a peer-to-peer mentorship platform connects employees with guides who have lived through exactly what they're facing, and why the ROI story for employee wellbeing is not soft at all — it lives in absenteeism, healthcare costs, talent retention, and the downstream damage of burning out the workhorses who pick up everyone else's slack. David explains what companies actually see about employee sessions — nothing, full stop — and why that confidentiality is the only reason people will ever use the service honestly. They also discuss the neuroscience of burnout and why it mirrors depression at the nervous system level, why the best thing for a human is another human but leaders rarely get trained on how to actually be one, what LifeGuides learned serving the Maui fire response and the early days of the Middle East conflict, how a sporting goods company's distribution center went from disengaged to its most activated site simply because someone spoke the language of that population, and why David journals every night in character as Anakin Skywalker to process his day as a hero's journey — even when the heroic act is taking out the trash. Dr. David Hester is head of guides at LifeGuides, a peer-to-peer wellbeing and mentorship platform serving organizations through a SHRM partnership and available at lifeguides.com. Connect with Dr. David Hester: lifeguides.com [email protected] Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Dr. David Hester 00:54 The statistic that makes a CFO stop treating wellbeing as a soft cost 01:30 Why EAP utilization rates are low and what stigma actually does to help-seeking behavior 03:02 Is LifeGuides a mental health platform or something different entirely 03:23 What peer-to-peer nonclinical support actually means in practice 04:38 Growing up in Fayetteville next to Fort Bragg — and why his chaplain father shaped everything 05:40 Seeing veterans struggle to feel seen, valued, and cared for 07:06 What HR leaders miss when they say mental health is covered through our EAP 07:25 How difficult it is just to take the first step and ask for help 08:30 What LifeGuides is — a peer-to-peer learning and mentorship platform explained plainly 09:35 How the matching process works — lived experience, pattern recognition, and AI in the loop 10:52 The assessment and onboarding process for new guides 12:20 Why guides are paid $24 an hour — and why they are really the customers 13:13 Why the $24 is really a stipend for executives sharing wisdom they've earned 14:00 A TED Talk leader keynoting inside the guides community and how the LMS works 15:21 When a CFO asks what the ROI on wellbeing really is — the honest answer 16:00 Increased engagement, utilization uplift across all benefits, and the white glove CFO approach 17:06 Why employees aren't using the benefits companies offer — awareness, over-push, and missing community 18:33 How long LifeGuides has been providing this service and the pivot from caregiver burnout 19:57 Half of employees have cried at work — what that tells you about where traditional support fails 20:53 What does a single burned-out employee actually cost a company per year 22:00 The workhorses who pick up the slack — and why they need a heat check too 24:20 Absenteeism, presenteeism, turnover, healthcare spend — which do leaders most underestimate 25:34 What measurable change can a company expect in the first 12 months 27:15 The sporting goods distribution center that went from disengaged to most activated 28:08 DriveTime and Robin Jordan — how an in-person resource fair changed everything 30:02 Rapid fire — morning meditation or late night journaling 30:55 One book that changed how he thinks about the human brain — Ray Kurzweil 31:45 Most overused word in the wellbeing industry — vulnerability 32:36 One thing about neuroscience that would blow most HR leaders minds 33:43 How LifeGuides decides who is qualified to be a guide — the three-tier vetting process 35:21 What HR actually sees about employee sessions — nothing, full stop 36:13 What organizations do get — aggregate engagement data and post-call surveys, HIPAA compliant #DavidHester #LifeGuides #EmployeeWellbeing #TrustcastShow #PeerSupport #HRLeadership #MentalHealthAtWork #BurnoutPrevention

What happens when a law school graduate forms his LLC before he even knows if he passed the bar — and then on the day the results come in, skips the celebration and opens for business instead — building over 20 years what becomes a multi-state personal injury firm serving clients across Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas, with over 95% bilingual staff and a specialty in protecting the Hispanic community? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Matt Hines, founder of Hines Law, about the single most important thing to do in the first hour after a car accident, why saying "I feel fine right now" to an insurance adjuster can destroy your case before it even starts, and why the other driver's insurance company calling you immediately after an accident is not customer service — it's strategy. Matt explains how cases are built from medical records as ammunition, why 97% of personal injury cases never go to a courtroom, what uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage actually does and why most agents never bother to mention it, and how Georgia's comparative fault rules mean you can still recover even if the accident was partially your fault. They also discuss the wrongful arrest case where three men cleaning out a foreclosure were jailed because the former cop-owner was angry, how Section 1983 federal civil rights law becomes the tool when government officials abuse their power, what stacking insurance policies means and why insurers hope you never ask about it, the case where a woman's father was killed by a car and other attorneys had already turned her away before Hines Law looked at the police report and found a real claim, and why waiting even a few weeks to see a doctor after an accident is often the single most expensive mistake a client will ever make. Matt Hines is the founder of Hines Law, a personal injury firm serving clients across Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas, with a dedicated Spanish-language practice at 404abogado.com. Connect with Matt Hines: hineslaw.org Phone: 770-800-2000 404abogado.com Atlanta, Georgia Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Matt Hines 00:43 Forming the LLC before passing the bar and opening day one 01:41 Working for other attorneys in law school — collecting knowledge, not loyalty 03:00 Someone just got rear-ended on I-285 — what to do in the next hour 04:02 The other insurance company just called and said they'll take care of everything 05:07 My neck is a little stiff but I feel okay — do I really need to go now 05:49 What does the insurance adjuster do the moment they hang up the phone 07:01 Can posting about my accident on Facebook actually hurt my case 07:22 Walk me through what happens when someone calls Hines Law the day of an accident 09:30 Medical records as ammunition — what gets built during the treatment period 10:30 How long does a personal injury case take in Georgia from first call to settlement 11:09 What is a realistic range of recovery and what factors swing the number 12:52 How attorney fees and medical bills come out of the settlement 13:37 Georgia's two-year statute of limitations and when it gets paused 15:00 What happens when the at-fault driver has minimum insurance and you have serious injuries 17:00 Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage — why your agent probably never mentioned it 18:46 What if the at-fault driver is wealthy — can you go beyond the insurance policy 21:00 Taking the insurance money versus suing personally — and why you usually can't do both 21:42 Can your own insurance company work against you — bad faith claims explained 23:14 Why you need an attorney even just to tell you whether to sign a document 24:19 Rapid fire — Clemson or Georgia, martial arts or travel, worst five words to say to an adjuster 26:03 The wrongful arrest case — three men, a corrupt cop, and Section 1983 29:11 What a case looks like when someone comes in thinking they have nothing 31:12 Roadway construction defects and how expert witnesses unlock invisible claims 32:18 The biggest mistake that costs people the most money in their cases 32:48 A result that still sticks — the civil rights case and why constitutional law matters 33:37 If the accident was partly my fault can I still recover in Georgia 34:25 The biggest lie insurance companies tell accident victims 35:24 Can you stack multiple insurance policies together to increase coverage 35:45 A client comes in three months after their accident with no treatment — is it too late 36:31 What people think their case is worth versus what it's actually worth 38:25 Building 404abogado.com — a dedicated Spanish-language arm for the Hispanic community 40:22 Supporting drug rehabilitation, human rights, and education in Atlanta 42:24 How to reach Hines Law in Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas #MattHines #HinesLaw #PersonalInjuryGeorgia #TrustcastShow #CarAccidentLawyer #InsuranceAdjusterTactics #AtlantaLawyer #GeorgiaPersonalInjury #BilingualLawFirm #Section1983

What happens when a therapist who spent 10 years working with parents at the breaking point traces it all the way back to standing in her own kitchen crying before work because she couldn't get her four-year-old dressed — and realizes that the missing piece isn't love or intention, it's skills? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Devora Segall, parenting coach and therapist, about why yelling is not a character flaw but a learned pattern that can be unlearned, what the wise mind concept from dialectical behavior therapy actually means in the middle of a real moment with a real child, and why the first thing she teaches every mom is not a technique but awareness — because you cannot change a reaction you have not yet noticed. Devora explains how her 12-week coaching program works through one-on-one sessions, real-time texting support, and weekly skill practice to help moms of kids ages 2 to 12 stop overreacting to normal child behavior without suppressing their emotions or pretending everything is fine. They also discuss why 75% of the parenting stress she sees in clients comes from unresolved childhood experiences rather than what the child is actually doing, the mom with four kids in a basement apartment whose internal resources came back online once she felt truly validated, how to prepare yourself on the commute home so you are not ambushed by your own nervous system the moment you walk through the door, and why Devora believes DBT — dialectical behavior therapy — is one of the most practical tools for everyday life that almost nobody outside the therapy world has ever heard of. Devora Segall is a licensed therapist and parenting coach, author of Sensitive Hearts Strong Minds and The Peaceful Parenting Solution, and founder of Segall Coaching, serving moms in New York, New Jersey, and beyond. Connect with Devora Segall: segallcoaching.com Free audiobook chapters: parentingaudio.com Text: 732-523-0370 Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Devora Segall 00:31 Standing in the kitchen crying before work — and what that moment revealed 01:04 Is it actually possible to stop yelling or is that just who you become as a parent 01:53 Can you be fully present at work and fully present at home at the same time 02:48 What parental burnout actually looks like day to day — not in a textbook 03:35 Who the program is specifically designed for — moms of kids 2 to 12 04:37 The fear that yelling now will destroy the relationship later 05:04 How the skills get installed and practiced until they become second nature 05:50 Why tamping down emotions makes them explode — the tea kettle metaphor 06:30 Awareness as the first step — what is happening in your body when your child acts up 07:25 What wise mind is and how to access it in a real parenting moment 07:55 The first skill — checking for safety and asking yourself is this actually an emergency 09:09 What to change first if you are snapping at your kids every night when you come home 09:22 Why the preparation starts in the car before you ever walk through the door 10:11 What wise mind is and how to reach it when you are three minutes from losing it 11:05 What the three-month coaching program looks like — one-on-one, office hours, and texting 13:17 Is there a course or is it primarily one-on-one 13:42 The mom with ADHD, the lost socks, and what changed when she stopped screaming 15:43 How much of parenting stress comes from the child versus unresolved childhood experiences 16:07 How Devora handles childhood trauma in coaching versus therapy 17:10 One word to describe what most parents are missing — calm 17:50 The one thing she wishes she had known 29 years ago — feelings come like waves 18:14 The mom in the basement apartment and what happened when she felt truly validated 19:04 The two books — Sensitive Hearts Strong Minds and The Peaceful Parenting Solution 22:00 Where Segall Coaching is going — groups, schools, and making DBT a mainstream movement 22:59 Free audiobook download at parentingaudio.com and how to reach Devora directly #DevoraSegall #SegallCoaching #PeacefulParenting #TrustcastShow #ParentingCoach #StopYelling #DBTParenting #MomBurnout #ConsciousParenting #ParentingSkills

What happens when a lawyer who knew he wanted to practice law at age five, graduated magna cum laude in three years, clerked for a federal judge, and then built a 180-person personal injury firm spanning seven Midwestern states decides the next chapter looks like running the whole operation from Puerto Rico using AI tools his peers are only just beginning to understand? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Michael McCready, founder of McCready Law, about the first 24 hours after an accident and why talking to the other driver's insurance company before calling a lawyer is one of the most common and costly mistakes injured people make. Michael explains why insurance adjusters are not your friends, what happens when someone waits more than 10 days to see a doctor, and how his firm uses a dedicated case manager system — plus an app, automated texts, and educational videos — so clients always know exactly where their case stands without having to chase down their attorney. He also breaks down how AI is being used right now at his firm to process biomechanical engineering reports, identify flawed assumptions in expert testimony, and draft demand letters in a fraction of the time it used to take. They also discuss how Michael recognized he was the bottleneck holding his own firm back and what changed when he finally let go of control, the four-tier attorney development system he built to keep great lawyers from leaving, why Washington University Law School put him on their AI Board of Advisors, the story of the burned foster child whose settlement money paid for college 13 years later, and why $500 million recovered over 30 years is really a story about doing a good job for a lot of ordinary people — not winning jackpots. Michael McCready is the founder of McCready Law, a personal injury firm with offices across seven Midwestern states and over 180 professionals, operating remotely from Puerto Rico. Connect with Michael McCready: mccreadylaw.com LinkedIn: Michael McCready Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Michael McCready 00:46 Why he picked up and moved the entire operation to Puerto Rico 01:33 Running 180 professionals across seven states — what that actually looks like 02:19 Does each office practice personal injury exclusively — and how do micro-cultures develop 03:02 Knowing at age five, graduating in three years, clerking for a federal judge — then walking away from a partnership 04:37 Building trust in your team as the only way to stop being the bottleneck 05:04 Is every office strictly personal injury — and why general practice is gone 05:39 I just got hurt in an accident and I'm scared — what do I do in the first 24 hours 07:02 Why personal injury lawyers charge nothing upfront and only get paid on recovery 08:02 The other driver's insurance company is already calling — should I talk to them 09:09 How insurance adjusters ask questions that quietly shift blame onto you 10:16 How do I know if my case is even worth pursuing 11:52 I went to the doctor a month after the accident — how strong is my case now 13:09 Why McCready Law will not take a case with no medical treatment in the first 10 days 14:15 Walk me through what happens after the first call — the case manager system explained 16:29 How to determine what the initial settlement demand should be 18:23 Grading offers A through C — and when to fight versus when to settle 18:52 The case manager system and why it is one of the biggest differentiators 20:30 Technology in the client experience — app, automated texts, and educational videos 22:42 How long does a personal injury case take and what is happening during all that time 25:04 Over $500 million recovered — what that number actually represents 26:54 The burned foster child who called 13 years later when he turned 18 and was going to college 29:05 Washington University AI Board of Advisors — what that actually means for legal practice 30:42 How AI builds demand letters and helps prepare for insurance negotiations 32:19 Real example — using AI to find flawed assumptions in a biomechanical engineering report 34:22 The AI hallucination problem — why lawyers are still submitting fake citations in 2025 36:00 Why AI predicts instead of thinks — and what actually causes hallucinations 37:52 The audit system McCready Law built to ensure every AI output has a human in the loop 38:15 From one person to 180 professionals — the moment everything changed 39:18 If you cannot find the bottleneck in your firm, it is probably you 39:49 The four-tier attorney development system and why transparency keeps great lawyers from leaving 42:17 How to reach Michael McCready and McCready Law #MichaelMcCready #McCreadyLaw #PersonalInjuryLaw #TrustcastShow #AIinLaw #LitigationAI #InsuranceCompanyTactics #PersonalInjuryAttorney #LawFirmGrowth #PuertoRicoLawyer

What happens when a litigator who fell in love with trial work through a mock trial team in college works his way up to running one of Michigan's oldest and most storied law firms — a 170-year-old institution at the center of the American automotive industry — and then realizes that leading a 175-attorney firm and trying cases in courtrooms across the country are not just two different jobs, they sometimes require two completely different minds? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Paul Mersino, CEO of Butzel, about what to do in the first 48 hours when a top salesman quits and starts calling your clients, why deleting emails you think are harmless before litigation starts can cost you the entire case through a legal doctrine called spoliation, and what separates the 3% of business disputes that actually go to trial from the 97% that settle along the way. Paul explains how a temporary restraining order works in real time — sometimes filed by Thursday afternoon and argued by Friday morning — and why the mistakes companies make before an employee leaves matter far more than what they do after. They also discuss business divorces and why even sophisticated executives become emotionally irrational when a partnership falls apart, how Paul filed an amicus brief on behalf of Chris Kyle's estate in the American Sniper lawsuit after watching the movie and feeling compelled to do something, what appellate argument looks like when a federal judge peppers you at the podium for two hours straight in Utah, how to preserve a trial record for appeal without the other side knowing that's what you're doing, and why automotive supplier disputes with $125 million on the table taught him that the size of the number is never what makes a case feel heavy — it's knowing that a loss means people lose their jobs. Paul Mersino is the CEO of Butzel, one of America's oldest law firms, founded in Detroit in 1854, with nine offices across Michigan and Washington DC. Connect with Paul Mersino: butzel.com [email protected] Detroit, Michigan Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Paul Mersino 00:41 Taking over a 170-year-old firm at 39 — the conversation that made it real 02:52 A top salesman just quit and is already calling my clients — what do I do in 48 hours 04:01 How enforceable are non-competes in 2025 and how has the law shifted 05:20 Trade secrets versus non-compete — how do you know the difference 06:43 What if the employee just carries everything in their head — how do you prove misuse 08:06 The fastest legal tool to stop a former employee — the TRO explained 09:30 What happens in the 14 days after a TRO is granted — mini trials and evidentiary hearings 10:30 The mistakes business owners make in the first week that kill their own case 11:47 Someone I've done business with for years just breached a major contract — what's my shot at recovery 12:45 Business divorces — what litigation looks like when a partnership falls apart 14:44 Walking clients through what litigation actually feels like before they commit to it 16:04 When one side wants to settle and the other won't budge — how do you move them 16:49 Counseling versus lawyering — and why the distinction matters in business disputes 18:24 What do you do when your own client is the unreasonable one 19:48 What separates the cases that win big from the ones that don't 21:31 Bench trials versus jury trials — how Butzel decides which to pursue 22:12 Automotive supplier cases with $125 million on the line — what that kind of exposure feels like 23:51 Telling opposing counsel that your client will lose their business — does it ever work 25:49 A trade secret case where the evidence looked bad — how the truth became the defense 27:03 The cover-up is worse than the crime — spoliation and destroying evidence explained 28:43 What a preservation order looks like and when the duty to preserve actually begins 29:18 Deleting emails before litigation starts and what the court does with that 30:42 Filing an amicus brief for Chris Kyle's estate in the American Sniper lawsuit 33:17 How the Eighth Circuit quoted his brief verbatim when overturning the multi-million dollar verdict 34:31 Defending trial wins all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court and the Federal Court of Appeals 35:51 What appellate argument looks like — two hours at the podium with a federal judge in Utah 36:39 Why you generally cannot introduce new evidence on appeal 38:30 Preserving the trial record for appeal and why you need appellate counsel early 39:30 Is Paul still taking cases while running a 175-attorney firm 40:25 Who is the ideal Butzel client 41:51 What Butzel does and doesn't handle — and where white collar defense and immigration fit in 43:15 Nine offices, eight in Michigan, one on K Street in Washington DC 44:02 How Butzel takes cases across the country through pro hac vice admission #PaulMersino #BusinessLitigation #TradeSecretLaw #TrustcastShow #DetroitLaw #AutomotiveLaw #BusinessDivorce

What happens when an attorney who spent 20 years defending insurance companies in personal injury trials, serving as a research attorney inside a California courthouse, and building legal experience across major firms finally walks away from fighting — because he realized he has a counselor's heart, not a litigator's — and builds a practice around the one thing most estate plans quietly get wrong? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with David Scopp, founder of Meaningful Legacy Law in Monterey County, California, about why a will alone does not avoid probate, what probate actually costs on a $3 million estate versus setting up a revocable living trust, and why there are roughly $50 billion in lost assets sitting with state governments right now because heirs didn't know what their parents owned. David explains how the step-up in basis at death can eliminate millions in capital gains for a family that inherited a Silicon Valley home bought in 1980 for $100,000, what a lifetime asset protection trust does to shield children from divorce, creditors, and bankruptcy, and why his own mother-in-law paid $8,000 for a perfect estate plan that still required probate because the house was titled wrong. They also discuss blended families and the Clayton election structure, why none of us want to face our mortality and that's the real reason most people never do this at all, how a two-hour life and legacy planning process walks families through the design of their plan without the jargon, and why David's training in mediation, mindfulness, and yoga makes him better at the hardest part of this work — sitting in a room with a family that hasn't talked about any of this yet. David Scopp is the founder of Meaningful Legacy Law in Monterey County, California, serving families throughout the state with estate planning, trust administration, and legacy interviews. Connect with David Scopp: meaningfullegacylaw.com 215 W Franklin St., Suite 204, Monterey, CA 93940 Phone: (831) 291-5958 Chapters 00:00 Introduction to David Scopp — and the Ellis Island origin of the name Scopovich 00:33 Spending 20 years inside the legal system before building something completely different 01:01 When he first realized most estate plans are quietly setting families up to fail 01:53 My parents have a will — aren't we covered 02:05 What a will does and what it cannot do — and why probate is expensive, public, and slow 02:43 What happens in California when someone dies with no plan at all 03:18 How long does probate take in California — one to three years depending on the county 03:45 The revocable living trust as the alternative — and why funding it properly is everything 05:29 When do you need a trust versus just a will — the $200,000 and real property thresholds 06:21 How to retitle assets into a trust — and what happens with an outstanding mortgage 07:22 The $50 billion in lost assets sitting with state governments right now 08:54 Retirement accounts and the Secure Act 2.0 — why you don't retitle them and what you do instead 09:52 Blended families, competing interests, and the Clayton election explained 11:48 How a split trust structure works when each spouse has biological children 13:22 How difficult is it to set up and what does it cost 14:41 The real cost of probate — 5% of the gross estate, not the equity 16:20 Why conflict and creditors show up when probate is public 17:08 How long does trust administration take versus three years of probate court procedure 18:39 What the two-hour life and legacy planning process actually looks like 19:53 Why so few people do this — mortality, education, and thinking it's only for the wealthy 21:27 The detailed design interview — what questions get asked and how decisions get made 22:23 Does David litigate — and what happens when there is a contested estate 23:37 The commercial property family with a trustee they didn't trust 24:46 The $8,000 estate plan that still required probate because of a titling mistake 26:01 How long he has been doing estate planning and when Meaningful Legacy Law was founded 26:44 Estate planning is not just for the wealthy — where that myth comes from 28:02 Capital gains, step-up in basis, and the Silicon Valley home bought for $100,000 30:44 Lifetime asset protection trusts — protecting children from divorce, creditors, and bankruptcy 33:07 How mediation training and mindfulness change the way he practices law 34:30 Having two boys and how that shifted his thinking about legacy 35:10 The Endangered Species Act law review article — Emerson, Thoreau, and why nature still matters 36:52 What he wants his legacy to be — and the legacy interview service he offers clients 39:54 What is next for Meaningful Legacy Law #DavidScopp #MeaningfulLegacyLaw #EstatePlanning #RevocableLivingTrust #ProbateCalifornia #TrustcastShow #LegacyPlanning #CaliforniaEstateLaw #TrustAdministration #BlendedFamilyEstatePlan