the advice i’d have for an owner of a

closely held business about to go

through a divorce would probably be the

same advice i would have

for anyone going through a divorce you

play it straight the facts are the facts

you don’t play games

they’re going to be entitled to the

books and records of the closely held

business

the data is whatever it is the sales are

what they are the expenses are what they

are

you don’t want to get caught up in in a

game where you’re not being as

forthcoming as you can

don’t waste time don’t waste money

fighting discovery

if you have confidential information

that you’re worried about there’s ways

to protect you

on that front but you just lay it all

out and get to the end as quickly as

possible

in my experience the law

and and the judges they’re not out there

to hurt anyone they’re just trying to

get to a fair place

and to me

one of the best things we could do for

our clients is to try to get them to

that place

sooner than later not having them

embroiled in the litigation for two

three or four years so when i have

someone who is a title holder of a

closely held business

i i give the information

we figure out what the right value is

and then we could have an intelligent

conversation about how those uh assets

could be divided that’s where the the

fair quote-unquote fight may be

but nobody should get caught up in

discovery and unfortunately i’m going

into this level of detail because i find

a lot of people trying to play games

withhold documents the case goes on for

two years you spend a tremendous amount

of money and then you end up where you

could have ended up at the beginning

anyway