David Bulitt: [00:00:00] Welcome to JGL Law for You. JGL Law for You is a podcast by lawyers, but not for lawyers. Only on JGL law for You do we discuss a wide array of topics to help you navigate the many legal processes, developments in the law, other current events, and how they may affect you, your family, or your business.
We are back on JGL Law for You, part two of essentially the nuts and bolts of divorce in the practice of divorce. What happens during a divorce in the state of Maryland? Part one, we talked a lot about what the laws are. We talked a lot about fault grounds and so forth, and what you can do to prepare for the divorce itself.
So today we’ve got my good friend and law partner, Chris Castellano, back to kick us off in part two of this, which is now we’re ready to file or now the case is ready to go forward. Chris, welcome.
Christopher Castellano: Yeah. Thank you very much, David.
David Bulitt: Alright, so let’s pick up with, okay, you’ve got your client and now the process [00:01:00] starts and you’re ready to actually file for divorce.
Let’s talk about what questions you might ask and what issues might come up at that point in time.
Christopher Castellano: Yeah, so one of the first questions I ask my clients, even before they sign a retainer, you need to understand what county are you in, where are we, where are we going to be filing, should we need to do that?
Because one of the first issues in your case is venue and jurisdiction, and that’s something that we need to figure out first. Our office is primarily located in Montgomery County, Maryland. So, most of the clients that we get are going to be Montgomery County based and some of the other local counties.
But if you’re living in Maryland, Montgomery County, you’re able to file for divorce in Montgomery County. For instance, generally speaking, for jurisdiction in Maryland, you need six months of residency in the state before you can file in the state for a divorce. That’s one of those first primary [00:02:00] questions that I’m ticking off the checklist of how we start a case.
David Bulitt: What’s the difference, Chris — for those of us out there that aren’t lawyers — what’s the difference between venue and jurisdiction?
Christopher Castellano: Well, at a basic level, for our listeners, the jurisdiction for what we’re talking about is Maryland having jurisdiction to hear the issues in your case, as well as what we’ll call geographic jurisdiction.
Venue is the specific county. That’s the high-level version of this in differentiation. So, when I’ve got a client that says, “Hey, I live in Montgomery County and my husband or my wife, they live in Montgomery County in a separate house,” okay, well your venue’s going to be Montgomery County.
It then starts to get a little bit more interesting if one person’s moved out, and maybe they’re living in Howard County, maybe they’re living in PG County or Frederick, and then you’ve got a question where you’re filing at that point. But that’s kind of the very basic understanding and explanation of [00:03:00] venue versus jurisdiction.
David Bulitt: During the course of the litigation, let’s say you filed a lawsuit, but you’ve got a client who — and we all know that the wheels of justice don’t turn all that rapidly — generally speaking, you have a client who needs support, needs money for either child support or spousal support. Is there a way to get that for that client while the case is pending?
Christopher Castellano: Well, yeah, that’s what we call in Maryland, Pendente lite day support or relief. That’s what I tell clients: it’s pending litigation.
You filed your complaint for divorce, you have various different needs expressed in the divorce complaint, and you don’t have the ability to wait until your final trial date or a custody trial date. In Montgomery County, we have a custody trial first and then a final divorce trial. That’s not necessarily the case with the other surrounding counties, but nevertheless, the calendar inherently is going to make you wait a certain amount of time.
I would say on average it’s at [00:04:00] least six months. Maybe you could correct me if I’m wrong there, but I’ve seen it basically no less than six months to get a custody trial, which means if you’re in a situation where you need some type of immediate support, whether — that be, like you said, immediate child support or immediate spousal support, maybe even attorney’s fees — or the access arrangement is a mess and you need the opportunity to correct it, a pendente lite hearing is a very brief hearing. Generally speaking, it’s before a magistrate, not a judge. You go before the court and that magistrate to talk about the immediate needs pressing, and you could have a ruling on those immediate needs oftentimes right then and there.
David Bulitt: So, if you need to have that hearing, whether it’s for support purposes or to set a schedule when the children are with their parents, does it matter in the [00:05:00] long term in terms of what the court does at that temporary hearing?
Christopher Castellano: Well, it’s not supposed to, right? But I think we all can acknowledge that it does.
Because if you have an access schedule set by the court on pendente lite basis, and it’s saying every other week — let’s just say 50/50, right — and it’s a week on, week off schedule, what’s going to happen by the time we get to the custody trial is that the kids haven’t been pushed onto the street when they’re with mom or dad.
They’re not getting into trouble; they haven’t failed their classes and they’re not being neglected by one parent or the other, food wise, or medicine-wise or what have you. The reality is that the court’s going to say, “Well, I’ve got a situation here at the custody trial that for the last eight months — or realistically five months — you’ve had a PL schedule and it’s worked.
What the court’s really looking at in these cases is what is in the best interest of these [00:06:00] children. What works for them? So, a PL schedule is very important because it can set the tone for your case and it really shifts it away from what do you want for the kids to the court’s first opportunity to say, what does the court think is best for the kids?
David Bulitt: So is it more likely or less likely that when you get to a final hearing on whether it’s access or support issues, a judge at that point in time is going to give deference to that pendente lite, that temporary order
Christopher Castellano: I personally, I think they’re always going to give deference. I think they’re always going to look at it as if another individual in this courthouse ruled this way and recommended this based on what they heard.
Now there’s a big caveat there, right? A custody trial is generally two to three to four days long, which means for a four-day trial, each side gets two days to present evidence, testimony, and [00:07:00] argument about why a certain custody situation should or should not happen. A PL in, in Montgomery County now is three hours. That’s an hour and a half each, which means that what you’re presenting to the court is very limited.
Now, I think you’re going to struggle —and this is entering into advice, and we should say, again, I’m not offering legal advice here, but just general impressions — once you go through a PL hearing, and the court’s ruled one way based on the high level, highlight real facts that affect the children, the court’s going to say, “Show me something that’s really having an impact on the kids.”
Yeah, you may not like it. You may not like your husband; you may not like your wife. You may not like the situation that I’m about to order here, but the PL order has been happening and the kids are fine. So, tell me why I should go away from what the court’s already ordered. I mean, how many times, David, have you had a judge that used [00:08:00] that exact phrase: “Tell me why I shouldn’t do this?”
David Bulitt: Alright. Even though, even though that judge is not supposed to do that.
Christopher Castellano: Oh, absolutely. But at the end of the day, they’re not supposed to, but the court has now a track record. And frankly, what the court’s tasked with is, “Hey, this couple has separated. That’s a terrible situation for these kids, and now there’s a new access arrangement.”
Now I’ve got evidence of five months — and I keep going back to that, so we’ll just use five months of access happening based on this schedule. So, I have actual evidence of how that’s working.
David Bulitt: Real data.
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Christopher Castellano: There are so many analogies I can use, sports-wise, motorsports-wise, whatever it may be. But the fact remains is that when you have that data to work with, that’s as good as gold. If the court’s looking at that data, they’re going to say, “Okay. I’m not paying deference to the PL order necessarily. I’m looking at the last [00:09:00] five months, and the kids are okay.”
David Bulitt: Okay, so let’s shift a little bit from that area of things to what happens in terms of getting documents, exchanging documents, and the discovery process that a lot of people have questions about. What is it? What are you able to get? What happens if people try to hide things? That’s a lot of questions built in there, but this is a top-down episode, so let’s do it.
Christopher Castellano: Yeah. So, everyone knows and they’ve heard about discovery. They’ve watched TV shows. They’ve seen all the different examples — if you’ve watched Suits, you’ve watched LA Law, you’ve watched whatever it may be — and everyone’s talking about like the 40 boxes in their litigation case against a major corporation.
Okay? That’s discovery. Now, is your divorce case going to have 40 boxes of documents? No, not a chance, but. What you’re going to do is still engage in a very thorough, very wide sweeping discovery. I tell clients when I’m preparing for discovery is that I cast a very, very wide net. I try to get as [00:10:00] much information as I can relevant to your case.
Then, once I get that first batch of information, I start to whittle it down, right? I start to really focus on issues that are really going to impact your case. That’s your broad-stroke approach to discovery, right? And I think frankly, that’s shared by most attorneys out there. I can’t imagine you would do anything else.
So, what is relevant? Well, the reality is that you’re getting divorced, and so your finances are relevant. The access is an issue. So that means that you know, your communication with your spouse is relevant. Communications with your extended family is relevant when it’s specific to items such as your kids, such as your wife or husband or whatever it may be.
When you start to break it down and you can look at it the opposite way: how is this relevant? Okay, well, you know, look at it from the perspective of did you ever talk to your Uncle Frank about your [00:11:00] wife? Well, then that means that text message is relevant, right? You may not understand or appreciate why it’s relevant, but that’s up for the other side to determine its quote-unquote probative value.
So, I tell people that in a divorce case, your whole life is relevant. That’s unfortunate, but that’s the reality of it.
David Bulitt: Do people tell you, look, here’s this document, whatever it may be. Maybe it’s a bank account that they think their spouse doesn’t know about. “Here you go, but I don’t want her to know. I don’t want him to know. I don’t want them to know about it. So don’t produce it.” A: does it happen? And B: What do you do?
Christopher Castellano: It certainly happens and people certainly have those requests. That doesn’t fly with me. When we get information that the other side’s entitled to, it’s going to the other side.
I’m a big fan of understanding vulnerabilities in a case and mitigating those risks and vulnerabilities. That’s what we do, David, right? I’m a risk manager more than anything else. I’m a risk manager [00:12:00] and so, you’ve tasked me with the job of mitigating and managing your risks, which means letting the other side know your vulnerabilities and let’s work on how we can mitigate those. That’s my approach, but I don’t play games of hiding the ball or hiding discovery.
David Bulitt: As an aside, what do you do if you find out that the other side is doing that? In other words, we’ve had this happen before, right? You get documents from the other side and then your client says, “Well, hold on a second. There was a bank account at Bank of America. Here’s a copy of the statement from two months ago.” And you got the statement, but the other side hadn’t produced it. What do you do then?
Christopher Castellano: Yeah, then you start — so like I said — your first step in Discovery is sending out those documented requests, right? That’s your wide net. Your next level starts to be more focused.
Okay, well, I didn’t get the — I think you said Bank of America —I didn’t get the Bank of America Money Market account. Right? I know it’s there. I know it’s there. Alright, so then we send out a subpoena to Bank of America. We’re allowed to engage in third party subpoenas and discovery, so we get that information from Bank [00:13:00] of America.
But what I’m also doing, David, is I’m sending a demand to the other side that says, “Hey, listen, we’re well aware of this account, this account, this account, this account and this issue. Hey, you didn’t give me any communications with Uncle Frank, right? You need to give me this stuff. You’re required to give me this stuff. Here’s the rationale as to why you’re required to give this stuff.”
At that point, you know, you’ve got two irons in the fire, right? You’ve got your third-party subpoena outstanding, and then you’ve got your request and your communications with the other side in good faith to try to get information.
It’s how those two items are responded to —whether that be by the Bank of America or the other side, trying to obstruct the Bank of America subpoena or the communication from opposing counsel directly on that issue — and that’s what dictates the next level. That could be filing a motion with the court to try to deal with that.
David Bulitt: I see. So now we’re at the question of what happens? Do most cases go to [00:14:00] trial? Is there another way that cases can be resolved? Talk to us a little bit about that.
Christopher Castellano: I mean, the reality is that most of these cases are settling. I think that you would share that view.
David Bulitt: I would.
Christopher Castellano: That’s certainly my experience. Most of these cases settle, and for good reasons, right? People have had their entire lives controlling the outcome of their lives and decisions, especially when it comes to their kids. I say this not to pass judgment on people that end up going to trial, but the reality is that people start to understand the bigger picture, the reality of the situation, and why it’s actually far more beneficial for their kids to simply settle the case and to dictate the terms of how a case is resolved and not sit in front of a judge who comes out with the same speech: “Listen, I don’t know your kids. I don’t know you, and I’m going to learn about you in the next three days, and I’m going to make a judgment based on what I’ve learned in three days.”
But you know your kids. [00:15:00] Over the past, 16, 15, however many years, and you know your spouse for even longer. So, you’re in the best position to be able to resolve this case, and I truly believe that which is why I certainly encourage people to resolve their cases in a good way. Because no matter what, a solution that is born out of a settlement is always going to be preferable to a trial.
David Bulitt: Yeah, I mean, we’re certainly in the same wavelength there. I tell my folks as we approach the possibility of it, and we’re dealing with custody for just a moment — and access, obviously our decision-making — these parents have the opportunity to make a decision for their family that’s going to affect their family for the rest of their kids’ lives.
Or they can leave that decision up to, you know, someone in a black robe who will open a file the morning the case starts and close it the minute he or she makes a decision.
Christopher Castellano: Then they’re moving on to a criminal case or some contract dispute case. They don’t have the luxury of time to be able to worry about your [00:16:00] case and your family to see if what they actually ordered was good or not.
David Bulitt: Chris, how do cases get settled? I mean, you and I have been around about different options, but how someone out there might say, “Okay, well I want to try to get my case settled.” How do you do that? What are different ways to do that?
Christopher Castellano: As I tell people, your case runs along two different tracks, like two different train tracks with the same ending.
That ending is the solution of your case, right? It’s either going to be once the gavel drops by a judge or once you sign the dotted line for an agreement. You can pass between those two different tracks at any point until that final solution happens, right? So, does that mean that you’re stuck doing litigation or stuck doing settlement? No, of course not, because you could travel freely between the two.
So, if you’re sitting there saying, “Listen, I’ve got a PL hearing coming up on February 14th or February 13th, rather. Yeah, I want to solve that case. I want to resolve it. I don’t want to go do this trial and rip each other apart on the stand.”
Once you have that realization — because I think that the [00:17:00] first step is really having that enlightened approach of, “I think it’s better that I resolve this case and I compromise,” right? The ever-aspired-to goal of compromising with people in this situation. Once you get past that point, it becomes a lot easier to wrap your head around the nuts and bolts, if you will, of how to settle your case. It requires that mentality shift of: I don’t want to go to battle. I want to move on.
David Bulitt: A lot of people come to me and assume that everything that we have between me and my spouse is going to be divided equally. Now, is that true in Maryland?
Christopher Castellano: In Maryland, we don’t necessarily split things 50/50. We’re an equitable distribution state, and that means that the court’s going to analyze the different equities that exist between you.
That means, for example, different reason perhaps that we should deviate away from what would be considered 50/50. As I [00:18:00] tell people all the time, listen, no court’s going to tell you that they’ve got a 50/50, this thing. The reality is — I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn — I think that a lot of judges would probably acknowledge this over a drink with you is that, yeah: they’re going to start at 50/50, but they’re not bound by any stretch to say at 50/50.
They’ve got to see and hear evidence that allows them to say, “You know what? I think that this person used $50,000 in an improper way, and so I’m going to deviate away from that 50/50 to quote-unquote, balance the equities.” So, to answer your question, no, we don’t. We don’t 50/50 everything necessarily. But in common practice, it ends up looking very similar to a 50/50.
David Bulitt: Yeah, I mean, it’s easier if I’m Judge Bull — which thankfully I never tried to be Judge Bull — but if I am, it’s easier and more efficient for me because I got other cases on my docket that are coming up to just draw a line down the middle of the page or divide by two. Rather than saying “This [00:19:00] person treated the other this way, or maybe I should factor in this, and that should have a dollar value to it,” right?
Christopher Castellano: Yeah. I mean, the easiest calculation you could do is X amount of dollars divided by two. So, I think at its core, what does equity mean, right? It’s fairness. If all things being equal, the most fair outcome of a case is split down the middle. So, it’s not wrong to say they’re going to start at 50/F50 because they’re starting at what is considered the most equitable situation.
David Bulitt: Now, let’s shift back to kids for a moment. I know we’re moving through this quickly, folks, because again, this is a top-down sort of view. This is not on the ground; this is from high up. So, let’s slide over to kids for a moment and talk about the differences between legal and physical custody.
What the standards might be in terms of what a court’s going to be looking at when it comes to making a custody award.
Christopher Castellano: Yeah. So, and this is often misunderstood, but it’s critical, right? Legal custody is decision-making. Regarding your minor children on [00:20:00] major issues, that’s not what should Jimmy and Mary wear to school on the first day?
But that could be, why is Jimmy and Mary not wearing a coat out on a 23-degree day? Right. You know, so it’s not a cut-and-dry issue where you just say, “No, this is always going to be a legal custody issue, and this is never going to be a legal custody question.” We could dive into that perhaps a little bit more in-depth.
But generally speaking, legal custody is your biggest decision. We like to think of them as issues dealing with education, health — both medical and mental health — religion, discipline, and the general welfare of the child. So those are legal custody questions.
Physical custody is what a lot of people associate with the question of custody, which is access to my child. In Maryland, it really boils down to overnights with the child, right? You can think of it as, “How many [00:21:00] overnights do I have with my child?” That’s your physical custody.
David Bulitt: Okay, so it’s, it’s more of a schedule.
Christopher Castellano: That’s right.
David Bulitt: Okay. Alright. Is it possible for people to have joint legal custody, but for one parent to have more time physically with the children than the other?
Christopher Castellano: Oh, absolutely. In fact, that’s, I don’t think it’s too much to go out on a limb to say that that’s the majority of the situations is that the court’s going to go ahead and grant joint legal custody, which means that both parents have to sit down and try to make a decision together for the kid. Then your access schedule looks something akin to every other weekend with mom or dad and, you know, maybe a midweek dinner on the off week.
So, it absolutely could look like joint legal custody where you both are making decisions equally, and then physical custody is not exactly equal.
David Bulitt: Okay. Again, folks, sorry for the short circuit. It sounds like the last season of Game of Thrones, for those of you who watched that, which was [00:22:00] sort of. A bit rushed. I don’t know if you watched that show or not, Chris, but I digress.
Christopher Castellano: I, I, I, I,
David Bulitt: Not a Game of Thrones guy?
Christopher Castellano: I’m one of those people who thought that the show ended just fine.
David Bulitt: Okay. Well, there you go. Okay. That’ll be for another show — another discussion. Okay. So, let’s talk about, let’s get away from that, and let’s talk for a moment about you’re now divorced.
What do you get from the court? To tell you that you’re divorced and what is, what is it, and what does it do?
Christopher Castellano: Yeah, so in Maryland, our decree of divorce is called a judgment of absolute divorce, and what it does is that it tells you that you are adjudicated, divorced from your husband or wife. The moving party, which is the party who filed a complaint, and that complaint that was actually heard by the court — and it could be a counterclaim or what some people refer to as a counter-complaint that’s the other side’s version of the same thing — are reflected in that order. Basically, the court’s saying you are divorced as of this day, right?
If you [00:23:00] divorce by way of an agreement. Your divorce decree judgment is going to quote, unquote, incorporate — and it should — but not merge that agreement into the order. If you don’t have an agreement, you’re going to have a much longer order that’s going to stipulate various different terms of the judgment the court found following your trial, it’s going to have custody terms, it’s going to have property terms, it’s going to have support terms, whatever the relief that was requested at trial says — whatever the court was willing to grant, that’s what’s going to be in your judgment,
David Bulitt: Is the divorce final, you know, right away? Or is the judgment been issued?
David Bulitt: Is the divorce final right away once that judgment is issued?
Christopher Castellano: No. The answer is that you have to wait until — this sounds a little silly for our listeners — the clerk actually stamps it.
I should rephrase that, because now they just use a computer program to add a little stamp at the top, so they’re not actually physically stamping it like the good old days. But once the court incorporates it into their system, [00:24:00] it’s considered a final judgment. Even then, David, I would say — and I caution my clients — that your judgment is still technically susceptible to an appeal for 30 days following the date on which the clerk entered that judgment.
So, I always tell people that you have what I consider a provisional final judgment of absolute divorce, which means don’t go get married within the next 30 days. Just save your follow-up marriage until day 31.
David Bulitt: Okay, so now I’m divorced. Let’s get to this sort of last piece. Are there common sorts of to-do items after the divorce is granted?
Christopher Castellano: Certainly. I think that we do a good job of really trying to explain, “Hey, items X, Y, and Z, those are things that happen post-divorce.” That’s going to be retirement entitlements, right? There are various orders that are necessary in order to submit for retirement benefits from your spouse, [00:25:00], but then there’s also understanding the custody reality of your order, assuming it’s a custody order.
So, you need to understand, let’s say it’s setting up supervised visitation, or it’s setting up a parent coordinator, or it’s setting up various communication protocols under the order, like using Our Family Wizard, which a lot of our listeners probably are well aware of.
So, you have to do a very good job — a very thorough job — of reading that judgment and communicating with your lawyer to understand the exact specifics of what your obligations are, what your entitlements are, and how you’re supposed to proceed in the next several months.
David Bulitt: I mean, I have found that a lot of times folks sign this agreement, they get divorced, and then they sort of forget about what they negotiated for, which is unfortunate because you spend a lot of money and time and effort to get that resolution. Or there’s a [00:26:00] judgment that was tried, and you forget what you’re supposed to do or what you’re supposed to get. Have you experienced the same thing with your folks?
Christopher Castellano: In my cases, what I generally experience is, you know, sometimes you certainly get the buyer’s remorse type of people on an agreement, right? There’s no doubt about it. They’re going to say, “Hey, listen, are you sure we bargained for this?”
Oh yes, my friend, we did. This is what you asked for, or this is what you were willing to give up.
Then there are people that certainly try to go back on that. But by and large, I find that there’s a fog of war, if you will, when they’re going through the process of negotiating an agreement, and that’s certainly present. Once the dust settles, they can start to think clearly. That’s usually what causes them to reevaluate and say, “Eh, I’m not sure I’m okay with this situation.”
That’s when you start entering that era of what I call the pre-era of post-judgment litigation and possible modifications. That might be a good topic for [00:27:00] another day, but just briefly put, if you have a judgment or you have an agreement, and you were able to squeak it through because it was just so tough to get this agreement in, but you know that there are some issues and you’re looking at it and saying, “You know what? I don’t know if this is going to work.”
Then, sure enough, you start to look at this, and things are falling by the wayside. They’re not happening the way they should. They’re not happening the way that they were intended to. That’s when you start documenting, that’s when you start understanding exactly what those rights and responsibilities under the contract or under the judgment are, and that’s how you build your case for a post-judgment modification.
David Bulitt: Mm-hmm. Now, one of the things I do, because I have folks and there’s more, and sometimes these agreements, Chris, are like, you know, 25 to 30 pages long. I try to — we try to keep them slimmer if you can. But one of the things I like to do with folks is give them what I call a cheat sheet for your agreement. It’s sort of a — you know, I call it a one-[00:28:00] sheet — which lays out and points to the particular provisions in the agreement but also lays out what you have to do by a certain time.
For example, an ex-husband’s due to pay you X amount of dollars by this date. If you don’t remember, you don’t have to leaf through that lengthy agreement, because you have this sort of cheat sheet instead. I have found that with most clients, it’s very helpful.
Christopher Castellano: Absolutely. I wholeheartedly agree. I also use the summary of the agreement and let them know, “Hey, this is what you are entitled to. Keep an eye out for this. Keep an eye out for this. Let me know when this happens. Let me know if you’re having difficulty collecting this monetary award. Let me know if there’s an issue with the IRA,” or whatever it may be.
That’s absolutely right. We engage in the same level of post-judgment, absolute-divorce care with our clients to make sure that they fully understand what they are, quote-unquote, entitled to.
David Bulitt: Now, we’ve talked for over two episodes here, close to an hour in total, which we could probably do 30 hours of a class on all of [00:29:00] this.
But if you can give folks that are listening two or three takeaways from this sort of nuts and bolts of divorce in Maryland that we’ve been talking about over the last couple of episodes.
Christopher Castellano: In my experience, what I’ve really recognized and what I try to implore my clients to understand is that you’ve got to enter the right mindset with these cases, right?
You’re not going to go into these cases suited up for battle and getting ready to tear the other side apart. You’ve got to understand that in 99% of these cases, you’re still living with this person. Maybe not in the same house, but you’re going to graduations, you’re going to weddings, you’re going to baptisms, and whatever it may be — first kids for your grandkids and all that.
So, you’re always going to be connected. This idea that you’re done is illusory. You have to have the right mindset, and slicing and dicing each other is not the right mindset. That is a very expensive approach. That’s the way [00:30:00] that David, you, and I win, not the way that the client wins, right?
So, you really have to approach it in the right way. I spend a lot of my time talking to clients and saying, “Listen, it’s not in my financial best interest to tell you to look at it this way, but I want to see you succeed in your case and in your post-judgment life.”
So, I want you to approach it in this way because it’s better for you, it’s better for your kids, it’s better for your family. Approach it in this more — I use the word generous, not to say that you need to give all your money away — but generous insofar as not being so critical of everything, right?
Once you have that correct mentality, you’re approaching it in the right way. I think a lot of these little parts start to fall into place. I always tell clients that the only way you have a real settlement is if both people walk away somewhat pissed off.
Because if you walked away feeling like you got one over on the other person, that’s not a settlement. That was a win. [00:31:00] So settlement means that you’re both going to be somewhat pissed off.
David Bulitt: That’s another one. You should put that on a t-shirt. Settlement means that someone — yeah.
Yeah, I think if we could fit all that on a t-shirt, it would be a good idea. But Chris, this has been great. Folks, there’s a ton of information that’s been packed into these two episodes. We’ve really enjoyed having you, Chris, talking about all this, giving people sort of a big, broad overview.
I like to say what we’ve done here is, you know, it’s been a mile wide, but only about a foot deep. There’s a lot more to know, a lot more to learn. If you’re out there and you want to know more about it, give Chris a call, send him an email. Chris, how do people get hold of you?
Christopher Castellano: Yeah, absolutely.
You could go to our website, jgllaw.com. You can find me on our website or email me. My contact information is on our profile. But you can call me directly on (240) 399-7881. I’d be happy to talk to you about all of your issues.
David Bulitt: That’s great. Thank you, Chris. As always, we appreciate your time. [00:32:00] Folks, we appreciate you listening and hope that all of this has been helpful.
As always, this is JGL Law for You.
