I live in Maine and back in September me, my girlfriend and her two kids took a trip to Canada in her car. On friday, we were on the way to Granby, she was driving and I was in the passenger seat. We crashed her car on the highway. We were hit in the drivers side door. Everyone was O.K. but the car was a total loss. My girlfriend had to go to the Sheerbrooke hospital to be checked out because she bumped her head pretty hard and was knocked out for a short time. While she was at the hospital I went to the impound lot to get our travel bags out of the car and went to rent a car to get where we needed to be. While I was at the impound I met the owner of the garage who did not speak english (and reaked of whiskey) and I do not speak french. I got all our travel stuff out of the car, made arrangements with him, the best I could, to return to the impound on sunday to get anything else in the car that my girlfriend might need and headed out. I did NOT sign anything and was never aproached with any sort of bill for the towing. I also had no idea at that time that my girlfriends insurance was not going to cover the towing bill. On sunday, we returned to the impound and again met the owner there. He let us in and my girlfriend took everything out of the car. Again we left without signing anything, without discussing a bill, NOTHING. I attempted to communicate with him that the car should be sent to salvage because it was a total loss and all he kept saying to me was "yes, yes"
Three weeks passed before we heard from him again. Some how, some where he got my girlfriends cell phone number and called her to tell her that she owed him $700 dollars (200 for towing and 500 for storage) His sister, who spoke english was his translator and after a long discussion we had reached an agreement that he would keep the car and sell it to cover the storage fee (which was NEVER disclosed either time I met him) and he would bill her for the $200 towing.
Yesterday afternoon I got a registered letter from a lawyer in Canada telling me that if I do not pay him $1500 in the next 5 days he is going to sue me for the money he is out. I have no idea how he got my name or address. I NEVER signed anything or gave him any information.... he never asked or attempted to discuss billing.
I called his lawyer and he was completely unreasonable. He told me that I would have to prove the car was not mine and that I was not driving when the accident occured. Is the burden of proof on him? Shouldn't HE have to prove his case against me in order to sue me? Should we really have to pay over $1000 for storage of a totaled out car when we were under the impression that it was going to be sent to salvage? Regardless, I called the insurace company and they told me that they could not release any information to me because I was not the driver, I did not own the car AND the insurance was not in my name. I then called the Sherbrooke police department to attempt to get a copy of the police report and they proceeded to tell me that they could not release any information to me because I was not the driver, I did not own the car AND the insurance was not in my name.
So what do I do? I know nothing about how Canadain law works. I really don't want / can't afford to travel to Canada again to defend myself in court on what I think is a boguss case! I have no idea if this guy even has a case against me just because I was in the car. How can I get this guy off my back?
Three weeks passed before we heard from him again. Some how, some where he got my girlfriends cell phone number and called her to tell her that she owed him $700 dollars (200 for towing and 500 for storage) His sister, who spoke english was his translator and after a long discussion we had reached an agreement that he would keep the car and sell it to cover the storage fee (which was NEVER disclosed either time I met him) and he would bill her for the $200 towing.
Yesterday afternoon I got a registered letter from a lawyer in Canada telling me that if I do not pay him $1500 in the next 5 days he is going to sue me for the money he is out. I have no idea how he got my name or address. I NEVER signed anything or gave him any information.... he never asked or attempted to discuss billing.
I called his lawyer and he was completely unreasonable. He told me that I would have to prove the car was not mine and that I was not driving when the accident occured. Is the burden of proof on him? Shouldn't HE have to prove his case against me in order to sue me? Should we really have to pay over $1000 for storage of a totaled out car when we were under the impression that it was going to be sent to salvage? Regardless, I called the insurace company and they told me that they could not release any information to me because I was not the driver, I did not own the car AND the insurance was not in my name. I then called the Sherbrooke police department to attempt to get a copy of the police report and they proceeded to tell me that they could not release any information to me because I was not the driver, I did not own the car AND the insurance was not in my name.
So what do I do? I know nothing about how Canadain law works. I really don't want / can't afford to travel to Canada again to defend myself in court on what I think is a boguss case! I have no idea if this guy even has a case against me just because I was in the car. How can I get this guy off my back?
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