TrustCast Show

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

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

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