SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

??? Main Theme:
How entrepreneurs can avoid costly and time-consuming lawsuits through smart business practices, communication, and record keeping.
________________________________________
?? Key Takeaways:
1. Disclaimer:
o Tom is not giving legal advice — just practical opinions from experience.
o The goal is to avoid court whenever possible to save time, money, and reputation.
2. Written Agreements:
o Always put deals in writing.
o Include arbitration clauses to resolve disputes before going to court.
o Written contracts discourage breaches by clearly defining obligations.
3. Meticulous Record Keeping:
o Keep specific, time-stamped notes of all interactions (e.g., “October 23, 11:07 AM” instead of “around 11”).
o Organized documentation shows professionalism and discourages disputes.
o Maintain labeled folders for each issue or case.
4. Good Communication:
o Address problems early and honestly before they escalate.
o Tom’s example: creditors helped him recover after business losses because he communicated openly.
o Ignoring issues makes them worse and leads to court involvement.
5. Insurance Protection:
o Maintain liability and umbrella insurance to protect against unexpected claims.
o Insurance can prevent lawsuits or cover legal expenses.
6. Separate Personal and Business Finances:
o Keep clean records to protect personal assets.
o Simply forming a corporation or LLC isn’t enough—must follow corporate formalities (minutes, meetings, separate accounts).
o Failure to do so allows lawyers to “pierce the corporate veil.”
7. Professional Conduct:
o Avoid threatening lawsuits or venting on social media — it can backfire legally.
o Use social media strategically, not emotionally.
8. Hire Carefully:
o Check backgrounds and social media before hiring.
o Avoid employees or partners with histories of lawsuits or negative behavior.
9. General Philosophy:
o Be honest, fair, and maintain integrity.
o Treat people well, document everything, and handle problems early.
o While no one can guarantee staying out of court, controlling what you can reduces risk.
________________________________________
?? Closing Message:
Take proactive steps — be organized, ethical, and cautious in business dealings. Doing so makes lawsuits far less likely.
Resources Mentioned:
• screwthecommute.com/automatefree – Free automation book (v3.0)
• greatinternetmarketingtraining.com – Tom’s mentor program
• IMTCVA.org – His online training school

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Episode 1047 – Staying Out Of Lawsuits
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1047 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today we're going to talk about staying out of lawsuits. You don't want to be in lawsuits, trust me. And I hope you didn't miss episode 1046. That was the friction zone. It's actually related to staying out of lawsuits. So, all the the kind of problems you can run into with employees and suppliers and customers and so forth. So anytime you want to get to a back episode, you go to screwthecommute.com, slash, then the episode number. Friction Zone was 1046. All right. Make sure you pick up a copy of our automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. Make sure you got version 3.0. That's the latest. And check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com and my school at IMTCVA.org.

[00:01:20] All right. I have to preface this, this shindig with I'm not giving legal advice, I'm just giving you my not so humble opinion that you do not want to waste money, time and reputation on legal fees and being in court if you can help it. And so a lot of things are my opinions on how you can stay out of those situations. And some of them are very common basics. For instance, you should have written agreements with all your your deals, and when it's in writing, you got some, you know, what's the old saying about a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's not written on or something like that.

[00:02:06] And in those should be arbitration clauses, which means before you go to court, you kind of do a cheaper method to try to work out the differences. But written agreements, if you work it out out front upfront usually, then you can stay out of court. When somebody breaches it, you say, well, look right here, you agreed to this. And so they kind of see, I'm not going to win in court. So they settle or do whatever they're supposed to do. So written agreements. That's the first basic good record keeping. Now this is one thing that I do meticulously, whenever I'm in any kind of potential conflict with anybody like the telephone company, Verizon or something, or a hosting company or whoever the heck you're dealing with, like, I'm in the still in the middle of trying to collect all my money from this accident that this other lady T-boned me. And so the method is, is you keep track of what time you called somebody or what time you talk to them on the phone. And when I say part of my copywriting training is specific cells in general doesn't you don't want to say in your notes or try to tell a judge or somebody that, oh, well, it was around the 14th of the month. Well, was it the 14th or the 13th or the 15th? Which was it? And it was in the afternoon.

[00:03:40] No, it was at 3:42 p.m. see, the more specific you are, people like, are like, uh oh, this guy or girl has all the details and we're going to be screwed if we lie or do something like that. All right. So, so and this can be like said, uh, at, at the collision place. Okay. Uh, Miss Janice, um, noting that I spoke to you at 11:07 a.m. on October 23rd, 2025. And you agreed to do this, that and the other. Right? So they're like, whoa, you know, and then I have all these notes, and then if they don't do what I said, then I go higher and I say, look, I talked to Miss Janet at 11:07 a.m. on October 23rd. And she said this and they're like, uh oh. This guy knows, you know, is really meticulous in his note keeping and is going to nail us to the wall. So that's the feeling they get. And then they usually do what you want them to do because you're specific and you're good good record keeping. So make that a point of keeping a notepad next to you. And then I have little folders. You know, I have one, uh, with the rental property name on it. I got one says car accident. I got, you know, other ones, and then I keep all that paperwork in there. And then if something happens, I can refer specifically and remember specific cells in general doesn't.

[00:05:14] So don't say around 11:00, say 11:08 a.m. or 11:07 a.m.. All right. And when you're that specific, that cells the deal, that you know what you're doing and they shouldn't mess with you. All right. Good record keeping now. Good communication. I always tell the story of when I was on my way to being a millionaire by the time I was 30, and the nightclub business, and then the drinking age went from 18 to 21, I was in a college town and it wiped me out. I lost like $400,000 in 1980s money. So it was a big deal. But I went to all the creditors immediately and I said, look, you know me. You know, I'm not some drunk that drank up all the profits and I'm going to try to screw you and go bankrupt or whatever. I went to them immediately and I said, here's what happened. You guys know me. If you give me a chance, I'll pay you back for what you know. It was like inventory and pizza ovens and all the kinds of stuff I owed money on. And every one of them said yes. I mean, they didn't have much choice because I could have gone bankrupt. But they said yes. And 50 years later, 45 years later, I could go back there. And they anyone that's still alive, that is, would say, that's the guy that didn't screw us. All right. So good communication approach the problem early. The sooner you get problems are always going to get bigger and worse when you ignore them.

[00:06:49] And perfect example are these people that rented a place for me and I'd cut them breaks over five years and gave them turkeys and hams for Christmas and Thanksgiving and treated them great and let them pay weekly. When I had to go pick up the rent once a week rather than monthly and did all this great stuff, and then they got in trouble financially and then just took off and screwed me over and over several text messages. I said, hey, where are you going? If you're legit about, you're going to take care and pay this stuff later. Tell me, where are you going? Where are you going to work. And then nothing, you know, so I'm going after them and just going to crush them because of what they did to me, where I'd have worked it out and had. But now I got to go to court over this because the damages they left and all this, all this stuff. So had they come to me ahead of time and said, Tom, this is what we're in trouble. We, you know, lost their job. I got a new job out of town. And, if you know, if you can give me some time, I'll start paying regular. You know, I would have gone with them, but now I got to go crush him and cause a bunch of crap, and then they still might go bankrupt.

[00:08:06] See? So there's no real benefit to all that kind of stuff. Staying out of court as best. But anyway, people will cut you a break if you approach the problem early. Explain yourself and promise them and act like a professional. Most people will cut you a break. Okay. Another thing is you still should have insurance. Liability insurance in case just something happens that you can't stay out of court. I mean, actually, insurance a lot of times keeps you out of court because your insurance pays for it. Now you're going to pay in the long run? Probably, if it was your fault. But I also have an umbrella policy which covers me for all kinds of stuff that's outside of the whack of my business or whatever. Right. See? So so that's relatively cheap insurance to have. Uh, that takes over and usually keeps you out of court. Right? Because the insurance pays. Now, the other hand, if you're totally broke and homeless, you're going to stay out of court because nobody's going to waste time suing you because you you don't have anything to give them. But if you've accumulated some assets, your home and so forth, you're at risk. Uh, now that brings up the next thing about keeping your personal and business finances separate to protect your assets, in case there comes a situation where you got to go to court. Again, I'm not giving you legal advice. I'm just giving you my opinion and things that I do to, uh, to protect myself.

[00:09:42] And a lot of people will say, oh, all you have to do is have a corporation or an LLC. LLC is a little bit easier to get into, but here's what they they don't tell you. The people that just run their mouth about this, uh, you know, corporations are supposed to protect your personal assets. It's a separate business entity, right? Right, right. Nope. It's not. Unless you keep perfect records and you don't intermingle your personal and your business finances. Any lawyer that first day out of law school can. What? Do what they call pierce the corporate veil. So you have a corporation. You mess up, but you haven't been keeping minutes or, uh, quarterly meetings. Director meetings, even if you're the only one. All right. That's why it's. It's kind of ridiculous if you're the only one. But if you don't have these in records of these, it makes it much easier for any, any idiot attorney to pierce the corporate veil and go after you personally. See? So, so if you're going to protect your assets, you've got to do it right. Jump. Jump through all the hoops. Then avoid threatening people with lawsuits because they'll say, yeah, bring it on, let's do it. And in fact, I'll countersue you. So avoid that. And here's one thing you really should do bite your tongue. Okay. For you young people out there, that means shut up. Don't be out on social media threatening them and so forth.

[00:11:24] Now are using social media strategically to put pressure on people. As long as you don't get into libel or defamation, arena can be powerful for you. But in general, just running your mouth and being emotional about it, you might say something that comes back to bite you in court if you do have to go to court. So try to shut up about it, all right? And the other thing is, is higher. Very carefully. Really look into somebody's background, check out their social media to see if they're they've been ragging on the ten previous companies they work for. Uh, who fired them or they're suing or, you know, so be careful who you hire and especially careful of your business partners. I've done episodes on partnerships and how you got to be careful with those and then just don't break the law. Be fair with people like I talked about on the friction Zone at episode 1046, and you're going to probably stay out of court now. Is that a guarantee? Absolutely not. Things can happen that's totally out of your control. But what I want you to do is control the things you can control and lean towards taking care of people, being honest, having high integrity. Be careful who you do business with and so forth. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. And check out my school and my mentor program. Greatinternetmarketingtraining.com and I will catch you on the next episode and hope I don't see you in court.