My question involves small claims court in the state of: Wisconsin.
I had been rear-ended in a car accident a few years ago, and had to go to the chiropractor. I wasn't sure who to file my claim with, so I asked the chiropractor and her staff for advice. They said my personal insurance may deny it since I was in an accident, so I should just file it with the insurance of the woman who hit me, reassuring me that they were familiar with this type of thing, and the insurance would pay for it. So I did so, and the insurance waited a very long time before refusing to pay.
So by that time, I couldn't file with my personal insurance, so I ended up being screwed into paying a few thousand dollars for this treatment. I was struggling with bills, since I had just had twins and wasn't working. We were just barely paying our mortgage, so I couldn't pay much on the chiropractor bill. I think we managed to pay off about a thousand. She sent it to collections, and I paid about $1200 off, then couldn't continue payments because we were struggling with money again. I made a few more payments, on and off, hoping I could pay it off sooner of later with taxes or whanot.
She sent me a letter saying I had until the 30th of April, 2008 to pay off the balance. But I found out that she filed in small claims court on the 28th of April.
So now I have to go to court, and I was wondering what exactly do I bring? I have prepared a spreadsheet that states our average monthly disposable income, and our monthly expenses. Will any of that make a difference? Should I be telling the magistrate or judge how the charges were incurred (by her faulty advice)? I want to be prepared as well as I can, but I have never done this before and I want to get the best result I can. Any help is greatly appreciated!

