Two years ago, I had a minor fender bender. Due to my husband's employer writing NSF paychecks, our Allstate Auto Insurance check bounced and we lapsed. There was very little damage to the other car, and nothing was heard from anyone for over a year.
In March, a half-dressed girl in her early 20s showed up at my door and handed my 10-year-old son a summons. Allstate was suing me for $9,000 in damage to a car I bumped at less than 1 mph. The summons was issued by Stillman Law Offices of West Bloomfield, MI.
I called their offices the next business day to ask what this was regarding, as I had never heard anything from anyone. Apparently, the claim had been filed quite some time before, but Stillman and/or Allstate did not think it necessary to notify me, the person they were trying to sue. Stillman reluctantly sent me the pertinent information about this claim, which included digitally dated photos of the car's complete tear-down and rebuild (for a dent). The date stamp on the photos was a month after the repairs were supposedly made. I asked Stillman for the phone number and address of the Allstate office suing me. They refused to give me this information; therefore, I was never able to contact the actual company or persons suing me.
This issue went to court several times, and though I eventually retained counsel, the judge refused to acknowledge that these repair charges were at least 10 times what they should have been. The final court date, the one on which the judge ruled against me, came and went without anyone notifying me that it was to take place, that a ruling was made, or that I had 30 days to comply. Stillman Law has now put in an order to suspend my driver's license to force me to pay.
Here is the kicker. I contacted Customer Relations and Claims Resolution at the main office of Allstate. They have no record of me, the claim, or the ruling that I owe them $9,000. They are not awaiting payment and have reopened the investigation. Does this have any effect on Stillman's efforts to extort $9,000 from me? No! They do not even want to talk to me unless it is to arrange payment.
I am not sure where I am going from here, but other than paying their court costs, I will not comply with Stillman. I want to deal with Allstate directly, but this law firm will not give me the needed information to do that. It is my feeling that they misrepresented themselves in court and did not represent Allstate, as no one from this company was ever present or issued any statements. It is no wonder the judge was clueless about the inflated charges, because Allstate was not present to explain.
If anyone knows how to get these people to stop harassing me, particularly how to get them to reinstate my license, please contact me. I am an unemployed mother of a 10-year-old child with autism who must be taken to and from school daily. Michigan law does allow them to do this, but because this was not a debt that I knowingly had (i.e., one I ran up on a credit card), this action seems to skirt the edge of the law.
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