 Monday, the judge from the sister Burnett trial gave preliminary approval of the settlements that Remax and Anywhere proposed before the trial started. So before the trial started, Remax and Anywhere, they made an offer. They said, Remax said, we'll pay 55 million in a settlement before this case even begins to minimize our liability and our risk and our future uncertainty of what's going to happen with this case. And Anywhere did the same thing for 83 and a half million. Now, this was both companies, 50% of both companies cash that they had on hand. So they're like, here's half of the cash that we have right now to try to make this thing go away. So I'm going to dive into a little bit of that. Also, we have a very clear timeline on the judge ruling, okay? I want to explain that timeline, exactly how this is going to go to where we get to a point where the judge is going to give an injunction of what he believes should happen with the real estate industry as a whole, okay? So that's going to be interesting, this timeline here. And also, I want to just kind of briefly mention the lawyers that the defendants on the appeal have actually hired to go through with this appeal all the way to the Supreme Court. So all this is incredibly interesting. Let's dive into this preliminary judge settlement. Remax in Anywhere can breathe a sign of relief. Now, when you say breathe a sign of relief, you have to think about that because they offer 55 million before the trial started, and it's like, well, if the defendants would have won, then they just paid 55 million. They didn't have to pay, okay? They didn't know, but now the defendants did lose the case, but we still have uncertainty on what the appeal process looks like and if the defendants can win in the Supreme Court. And so it's still a risk. You still don't know how this thing is going to end through the whole thing. So it's not a complete sigh of relief. The only sigh of relief is certainty. This is what we're going to have to pay to make this go away. What about future lawsuits, though? What about all these copycat lawsuits that are coming out? And also, they made it a national case with a bunch of different defendants, of course, except for NAR, but how is Remax in Anywhere going to get tied into some of these copycat lawsuits? And are they going to settle those before all the, there's so much uncertainty. Well, what's happening here, right? But for the moment, they have a sigh of relief. The two corporate brokerages have received preliminary approval of their settlement agreements in the Citroen Burnett, the Morrill, and the Nosellic Commission lawsuit. So all three of these cases have been settled simultaneously. The judge who oversaw the Citroen Burnett trial last month in Missouri's Western District granted the settlements preliminary approval Monday morning. The courts find that the proposed settlements with Anywhere in Remax as set forth in the settlement agreements are fair, reasonable, and adequate. The judge wrote in his motion granting preliminary approval, the terms of the settlement agreements require Remax and Anywhere to pay $55 million and $83.5 million respectively, as well as make policy and practice changes. Some of these provisions include no longer requiring agents to be members of the National Association of Realtors or following the National Association of Realtors Code of Ethics or the MLS Handbook. These changes outlined in the settlement agreements include what the firms will require or encourage agents to make it clear to clients that commissions are negotiable, that agents will have the freedom to set or negotiate commissions as they see fit, and that agents will not be required to make offers of compensation or accept offers of compensation from cooperating brokers. So they're basically saying, hey, we're going to make it clear, we're going to encourage agents to make it clear to clients that we can negotiate commissions, that the agents have freedom to set or negotiate commissions however they want, and that we will not require our agents to make offers of compensation for the buyer brokers on listings or accept offers from compensation. We're going to basically step out of that and let that lie in the hands of the agents to make those decisions. We're pleased with the course decision to grant preliminary approval of the settlement. This is Nick Bailey, the president and CEO of Remax. This development signifies progress in our ongoing efforts and commitment to a resolution. It's a positive step forward in bringing these cases closer to the finish line. In an email, a Remax spokesperson also noted that the firms anticipates the final approval of the settlement sometime next year. So they got preliminary approval, but now they have to actually set up a final approval hearing. This is just preliminary approval. At Anywhere, the CEO and president, Ryan Snyder, was equally pleased. Our efforts to resolve these claims remove future uncertainty and legal expense for Anywhere. Our franchisees and affiliate agents, as we, as together, we focus on serving home buyers and sellers as they move to what's next. According to the order, the parties must contact the court prior to December 22, which is about a month, to schedule a final approval hearing. So that hearing for final approval is going to be next year. While the judge's motion answers one of the questions left by the jury verdict in the Citzer Burnett trial, much remains unknown. It's yet to be seen if the Department of Justice will try to get involved in Citzer Burnett as it is already done with the Nosellic lawsuit. Many analysts and observers expect the DOJ to get involved at some point. Let's talk about the judge ruling on the Citzer Burnett trial and when that could happen and what the actual timeline is. The Injunction and Citzer Burnett Commission lawsuit not expected until spring 2024. So we won't know until next spring, April or May, what the final outcome is going to be of the Citzer Burnett trial. We have new court filings outlining timeline for post trial motions and when a final judgment might come down. Let's go through this timeline because this tells you exactly when all this is going to come to be. As the dust settles from the Citzer Burnett trial and the jury verdict, many unanswered questions remain and based on the judge's last filing, it doesn't appear the real estate industry will have definitive answers anytime soon. According to a court order file Tuesday, any post trial motions the defendants wish to file need to be submitted by January 8th. So post trial motions from the defendants need to be filed by January 8th. From there, the plaintiffs have until February 26th to file oppositions to the defendant's motions and then the defendants have until March 18th to file their responses. So the defendants who lost have until January 8th to post their post trial motions. Then the plaintiffs from January 8th have until February 26th to file their oppositions to that. And then once that happens, the defendants have just three weeks, it looks like, until March 18th to file their responses to the plaintiff's oppositions. After all the post trial motions are resolved, there will be a 30-day waiting period until a judgment is executed. In other words, the real estate industry may be waiting until April or even May of 2024 to find out what the injunctive relief of the commission lawsuit will be. While some experts, industry experts have speculated the injunction will simply call for an end of the National Association Realtor's clear cooperation policy. Others believe it may demand the end of any cooperation compensation practices by barring listing agents from paying or offering to pay buyer's agents. Despite a lengthy timeline, defendant Kelle Williams remains optimistic. We have strong grounds for appeal and are focused on next steps, a spokesman from Kelle Williams said. In the meantime, the industry is facing growing pile of copycat lawsuits and continued uncertainty surrounding the Department of Justice's investigation into NAR. All right, so we've got a long way to go here before we get some answers of what the final judgment is going to be on this case. And like everybody said from day one, this thing is going to get appealed out for an incredibly long time. Well, that judge comes down with the injunction. If that injunction in fact creates a situation where they bar listing agents from even offering buyer-agent commissions, NMLS, then that could completely change what we do. Not really what we do, but how we do it. Let's just say it like that. And we'll go from sellers paying the buyer's agents directly. I said it, sellers paying the buyer agents directly. Everybody thinks the buyer's going to pay the buyer-agent commission, but that's not going to be the case. You're going to have the sellers paying it still because the buyers are going to ask for it in the contracts and there will be agents involved. Otherwise, there's going to be tons of lawsuits. Now the the defendants are beefing up for this appeal. NAR and KW gear up for legal uh, gear up their legal ranks for the Cicero Burnett appeal. All right, listen to who they got here. The defendants in the landmark Cicero Burnett trial who vowed a long legal fight after the guilty verdict are delivering adding top legal brass to their benches. Kelly Williams tapped Paul Clement to be part of the franchisor's appeal team. Clement served as a U.S. Solicitor General, the fourth highest post in the Department of Justice. So they got somebody who used to work directly on the Department of Justice from 2005 to 2008. He's an appeal attorney and in private practice who has argued more than a hundred cases before the Supreme Court. Okay, so this is this is a big, big guy. He used to work for the Department of Justice and he's also as a private uh, as attorney in private practice, he's argued more than a hundred cases before the Supreme Court, which is where this is going. The National Association Realtors also brought in a former U.S. Solicitor General with experience working under Clement. So they brought in the guy that used to work under Clement at Department of Justice and that's Gregory Garry. Garry succeeded Clement as Solicitor General and has argued dozens of cases before the Supreme Court. So this is actually someone who worked under Clement at the Department of Justice. He succeeded Clement at the Department of Justice as a Solicitor General and he's argued dozens of cases before the Supreme Court. He's actually defending Purdue Pharma's bankruptcy settlement, you know, I guess right now. Other defendants are also adding appeal lawyers to the ranks, including some with proposed settlements that have yet to be approved. So we're already getting into the settlement game here. But anyway, this was, this is just a quick update for you on, you know, the cases, where we are on the approval, the timeline of when we're going to possibly get to an answer of an injunction. It's going to be, you know, April or May. So I'm going to continue to cover this for you. Let me know if you have any questions whatsoever. I read every single comment. I'm doing my 2024 business planning session next Friday at 4 p.m. Eastern. I'll put a link in the description for that. And let me know if you guys are absolutely getting after it. Let's go.