My name is Tim Castleman and after I got out of the military and moved here to Lubbock, Texas, and graduated from Wayland, I opened a small business called Castleman Consulting, LLC.

It was a Lubbock based business where I was proud to say that we were a debt-free based business that employed young working mothers in our greatest times of accomplishment to help us achieve our goal. As a company, back in 2015, we expanded our online efforts to an online e-commerce store. Think about Amazon, but for the small guy, in order to do that, we hired a company by Kevin O’Connor and The Offline Assistant Company to help us fulfill those orders in doing so.

In one month, I believe as the owner and president of Castleman Consulting, LLC, that Mr. O’Connor made $8,000 worth of errors through his company through miss ordering our most popular product.

I reached out to Kevin O’Connor myself after discovering the errors his staff made. He first refused to admit any mistake and then stopped responding to my emails forcing me to hire a lawyer to attempt to get this error addressed.

I had to hire the lawyer to send a legal demand letter and a legal demand letter is basically saying, Hey, we want our money back and here’s what’s going to happen. It was after that time that my lawyer explained to me that over a sum of $8,000, it wouldn’t be worth the time or effort to pursue the legal case further. So I dropped it. Mr. O’Connor himself did not drop it and hire not one but two different attorneys, one in Dallas, and then one here in Lubbock, Texas to pursue a libel claim against me for leaving a negative review about his business.

I am splicing this section into the overall video. You’ll be able to tell, because it’s got different audio than the other ones. That’s the only spice I’m going to do because reviewing the video, I realized I left an important and critical fact that I need everybody here to understand the reason I’m being sued was not because I sent a legal demand letter to The Offline Assistant & Kevin O’Connor it’s because I left a negative review of his business once he stopped responding to me.

I want you to let that sink in, let that sink in for just a moment. Ladies and gentlemen, okay. I left a negative review after the business failed to acknowledge any issues that they may have had, attempt restitution and even stopped responding to my emails. Then I went public to prevent other people and businesses from being shamed and screwed over like I felt that I was, and that is what the lawsuit was brought about.

Me leaving a negative review. So if you think about leaving a negative review ever for a business, I just want to let you know, if you go to Judge Les Hatch’s Court, it appears that not only will he allow that lawsuit to proceed, but he’ll actually find you at fault for hiring a business to perform a service, you feel that they, they didn’t perform the service as expected and as a result of that, you leave a negative review about their services.

If you go to Judge Les Hatch’s Court, at least in my experience, he’ll let that lawsuit against you fly and punish you and your first amendment rights, your ability to speak out about negative service that you’ve received. So again, this wasn’t because I, I didn’t get sued because I sent a legal demand letter.

I literally got sued and currently have a $302,000 judgment against me because I left a negative review for The Offline Assistant and Kevin O’Connor when I believe them to have over-ordered $8,000 worth of goods. And Judge Les Hatch here in Lubbock, Texas allowed that lawsuit to move forward, denied me protection under the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA) and found against me in favor of a foreign national company, that has no ties to the United States or any US citizens running the company.

And that claim was heard in the trial court by Judge Les hatch here in Lubbock, Texas. And we are nearing the completion of that case and me asking them to grant me a Bill of Review, and I have some serious concerns about the competency of the trial judge involved. This case was allowed to attach both to my personal and professional assets.

Now you may be watching this go well, Tim, you need to have an active LLC to prevent that. Well, folks, I did have an active LLC that was active at the time of this and that LLC fully encompassed this business. And we know that because this case went all the way to the Texas Supreme court to have to explain to the trial judge that I was a customer of Mr. O’Connor’s not a competitor.

Furthermore, once that was all decided, the Supreme Court of Texas decided I was entitled to attorney’s fees yet the trial court, again, Judge Les Hatch denied my attorney’s fees while denying the attorney fees of Mr. O’Connor, as well, which I was ok with.

Here’s what the Texas Supreme Court said about the case …



Unfortunately in December of 2019, at hearing which I did not receive notice nor was I at, the opposing side after asking in writing and being rebuffed and told, no, you can’t get attorney’s fees brought up the attorney fees again, and the court failed to remember its previous ruling and granted those attorney’s fees.

Not only did Judge Les Hatch grant those attorney’s fees, which he previously had denied, he allowed those to be severed from the main case for immediate enforcement on my business assets, which again, I don’t have a problem with, because I have a business LLC. That’s what it’s set up to protect me. What I do have a problem with is the following.

Somehow some way through what I would determine isn’t competence, the trial judge allowed a business dispute between Castleman consulting and Mr. O’Connor’s company, The Offline Assistant Co to be attached to my personal assets, despite knowing and being told that I was a customer, not a competitor, despite knowing that I had an active LLC at the time. And again, after already denying my attorney’s fees that the Supreme Court said I was entitled to, the end result being a $302,000 judgment against me, without me ever, having a day in court.

There is not one second of recorded testimony for deposition or trial because because I received no notice of those dates. And I can confidently say that. And Judge Les Hatch is aware of that because when we had a three hour hearing about this and all of the lawyers were present and said, Mr Castleman didn’t know about this. Furthermore, he never received notice. There was no evidence presented to the contrary by the other attorney.

There’s not a signed document, a signed statement, a photograph of video, anything proving that I had knowledge of these court cases and advance. So a $302,000 judgment was attached against me personally and professionally, despite having an active LLC, despite having an active business account, despite this being a business dispute to the point that I am less than a month away now from having my personal property, my home foreclosed and sold against to fulfill this personal judgment over a business dispute. Now we’ve taken this back to the trial court and we have given the trial court several chances to remedy its errors. And the trial judge, Judge Les Hatch, seems hell bent on not allowing me to have my day in court. I should also mention now that Mr. O’Connor and The Offline Assistant company are foreign companies. They are not even US citizens.

They are residents of Ireland. So not only did I never get my day in court, not only was my LLC ignored by the court, not only were my attorney’s fees denied by the lower court after being awarded at the Supreme Court, and then there’s denied and approved without me ever being at a hearing to contest those.

But now the trial judge,Judge Les Hatch, despite all of the evidence refuses to grant me a retrial.

So to me, it appears that the trial judge is more concerned about a foreign national and a foreign company getting their day in court than a Lubbock based small business. I’m a veteran, I’m a small business owner. And I thought that the laws of my country were set up to protect me as the U S citizen, not a foreign national on a foreign company.

I thought once you presented things to the judge, like, Hey, here’s a piece of paper from the Supreme court saying he is awarded attorney’s fees that just happened. The judge just doesn’t get to arbitrarily say, Oh, I don’t want that to happen. And if he doesn’t want that to happen, I’m okay with that. As long as it applies to both sides, but don’t deny me attorney’s fees, forget that you denied attorney’s fees, allow them again, and then have to go through all of this.

I’m sharing this with you because I want you to understand this is my experience as the owner of Castleman Consulting, with the court system here in Lubbock, Texas. And if you’re a small business in Lubbock, Texas owner, you should be very, very concerned at the lack of knowledge, uh, even basic knowledge it appears that the trial court and specifically Judge Les Hatch had of this situation. For instance, our very first hearing at the very end of it, he asked why this was even in his court, even though it been made clear to him several times that I was a Lubbock based business.

What good is having a Supreme Court of Texas render decision if the trial court goes, I’m not going to listen to what the higher court told me and what I should enforce, I’m going to go and make up my own rules here based on just what I feel and despite giving no evidence to the contrary, to prove that I received notice or had any notice of these hearings by any of my lawyers, by any written paperwork, anything like that, the judge still refuses to grant me my day in court.

Now my personal property is being sold to satisfy a business debt that should have never been allowed to attach it in the first place. We have one last hope, and that is the appellate court. And hopefully the appellate court, as it has done many times will help remind Judge Les Hatch, what the law is versus what he feels like he’s entitled to do.

I’m sharing this with you as a concerned citizen of the United States, as a proud veteran, as a small business owner. I want you to know all of that can be taken away from you here in Lubbock, Texas for a foreign company and a foreign national business, no matter what proof you provide, the trial courts here do not appear to be interested, at least in my experience to give the local Lubbock, Texas business owners their day in court, versus ensuring that the foreign nationals get everything that they want. And it makes you wonder what is the point of having an active LLC of having a business account of doing everything correctly and setting everything up correctly to where you will feel protected legally only to have a judge make a decision to ignore all of that?

So I would warn you greatly if Judge Les Hatch, ever comes up for reelection, which I believe he does next year, I would urge you strongly based on my opinion to vote no for a gentleman like that. And maybe allow him to go back out into the private market and learn a few more things about law, like basic LLC stuff, for example.

I understand the judge may get upset by watching this and judge, if you are watching this and you’re upset, so am I, because you took away a business of mine and my personal property. You ignored every piece of fact and evidence that we gave to you and you just decided that I’m not entitled to my day in court. So I don’t think you should be entitled to continue your run on the bench.

I would love to come and speak at any event anywhere in the United States and explain to you what is happening in the justice system here in Lubbock, Texas in favor of foreign companies. If you’re part of the media or you have a blog or a podcast, and you want to get into the nitty-gritty details, my contact information will be below here, I’m immediately ready to appear and be candid and wide open, if you will sharing my experiences of the legal system specifically my impression, which I’m guessing you can tell, it’s not favorable of the trial court here in Lubbock, Texas. So, I will continue to spread this. I’m going to be sharing this with the media. Uh, I’m going to be talking to several people to get the world up about this, because if this is going to happen to me, it can definitely happen to you and you go, well, Tim, again, I’m protected.

I have an LLC. So did I judge didn’t care? Supreme court explained to them business, right? Not a competitor, but a customer, Judge Les Hatch didn’t care about the attorney’s fees that I was awarded by the Supreme Court. Judge Hatch didn’t care to enforce his previous judgment of no attorney’s fees and allowed himself in a moment of lack of clarity. I don’t know, diminish the capacity to be talked into giving attorney’s fees by the other side after previously denying them Then once that was pointed out to him, Judge Hatch made no remedy to fix the situation, nor again, with any evidence presented to the contrary when there’s nobody, no one can say, I knew about these hearings and you get the Judge, again, refuses to give me my day in court. So with that in mind you do what you want to do. You make your own decisions as a person and as a business, I just want to share my experiences in dealing with Judge Les Hatch and what I’ve had to experience going through his courtroom since 2015.

Again, my prayers are with the appellate court, that they will be the one branch of the judicial system that can, uh, make a decision based on the facts actually presented and not just how they feel that particular day.

Thanks for watching this, I appreciate it. I’ll provide updates as this case develops. As of right now, it looks like I’m gonna lose my homes, um, and my personal property for this business dispute. And there doesn’t appear to be anything that I can do because apparently Judges are beyond reproach, even when they seem to ignore the basic facts of the case.

***All statements here are made as opinions and should not be taken as facts prior to you doing your own research and forming your own conclusions. These opinions are solely those of Castleman Consutling LLC and it’s owner Tim Castleman and do no reflect the opinions of this company or any of it’s employees.