My Background

Creating art has been my passion for as long as I can remember. My parents began nourishing my creative spirit since I was born (and my mom was actually saving for my college tuition before I was born!). When I was a child, my parents provided me with a large array of art supplies so that I could create whatever I could imagine. They enrolled me in numerous extracurricular art classes of my choosing.

I don’t classify myself as any particular sort of artist (i.e. painter, sculptor, photographer, etc.). When creating my art, I prefer to let my ideas determine the media to be used. Some of my favorite visual arts media are painting (watercolor, airbrushing and acrylic), ceramics, sculpture, pyrography, drawing, and pysanky. I enjoy digital photography, especially capturing the natural world, and making adjustments to my images in Photoshop.

Click here to see examples of my creative works.

In addition to the visual arts, I was fortunate to be able to take private ballet, tap and jazz dancing lessons in my younger years. I also took private guitar lessons and was enrolled in a piano class in high school. Although I didn’t practice any instrument enough to really excel, I do consider myself to be a music aficionado and audiophile. I listen to a wide variety of genres on CDs and vinyl, and I am continually exploring more.

Throughout my childhood and adolescence, my parents enlightened me with outings to plays, museums, art shows and other cultural events. Our regular visits to the Detroit Institute of Arts Film Series in the 1990s sparked my interest in foreign films, leading to my language studies in both French and Spanish, which I have continued to maintain to this day. I am nearly fluent in French and can comprehend and speak basic Spanish. I also enjoy enhancing my English skills by learning new vocabulary, verifying my grammar is correct, and playing word games (especially Scrabble). I often write poetry, some of which becomes song lyrics, as I also like to sing and rap.

Equal to my passion for the arts is my passion for nature and living things, and preserving the health of the environment and everything whose survival depends on it. I continue to expand my knowledge base by reading scientific articles on a variety of topics as well as carrying out my own scientific observations and studies. I diligently care for my houseplants, outdoor plants and mosses (I have over 200 different species altogether, some of which I've had for 20-40 years). I grow wild raspberries, boysenberries and thorny cane blackberries in my garden and make them into an incredible-tasting sauce. Since 2019, every summer I’ve been doing my part to help the monarch butterflies.  My garden features a large patch of milkweed so that I can hand-raise caterpillars found on the leaves as eggs and release them as healthy butterflies. I also hand-raise swallowtail butterflies on dill in this manner.  I maintain a pesticide- and herbicide-free yard that many creatures call home.

I attended the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, where I obtained my Master’s Degree + 15 in Biology as well as teaching endorsements in Biology, Mathematics and Physical Science for grades 7-12. U of M did not have an Art teaching endorsement, so I attended Eastern Michigan University to obtain my teaching endorsement in Art. While at EMU, I received specialized training in Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE), which is a more comprehensive approach to studying the arts with content derived from the disciplines of art history, aesthetics, art criticism and art production. Students become educated in the seven principles of design (emphasis, alignment and balance, contrast, repetition, proportion, movement, and white space) and learn how to appropriately utilize them while creating their own art and analyzing the art of others.

My unique contribution to the art education program I developed while at EMU was the integration of other educational disciplines into the art curriculum. My lessons incorporated science, math, history, various cultures, and more. I am able to provide a truly well-rounded educational experience, given my formal education and informal studies and interests in a multitude of disciplines and activities. I have a strong desire to enlighten others as well as a natural ability to inspire my students to learn and find success.

I was able to realize my dream of being a full-time art teacher for one year (the 2003-2004 school year), when I left a position of three years as a high school math teacher to transfer to a different school district that claimed they were expanding their art program and needed a new high school art teacher. Their promise of a long-term art teaching position proved to be disingenuous, and I was ultimately used for my other credentials instead. In 2004-2005, I was transferred to the middle school to teach science. 2005-2006 was the most challenging year of my teaching career, when I was re-assigned to the high school to teach classes in all four of my endorsement subject areas: Biology, Algebra 1, Physical Science and three different levels of Art. From 2006-2010, I primarily taught high school Geometry.

I hadn’t given up my dream of finding a full-time Art teaching position, but everything changed in 2010, when I was severely injured in an auto accident through no fault of my own: While stopped, waiting for the car in front of me to turn, a distracted driver in a Chevy Suburban traveling about 55 mph failed to brake, and rear-ended my vehicle. Also through no fault of my own, my school district unlawfully terminated my employment due to issues originating from the accident.

I believed I would eventually recover from my injuries and be able to return to the teaching profession, preferably as an Art teacher. However, by 2024, there was no denying that my unresolved health issues would continue to prohibit me from undertaking the demands of being a full-time educator again. Even if I had made a full recovery, given that the law requires public school districts to pay their teachers based on their education level, and teachers are not permitted to accept a lesser salary, my chances of finding a district to hire me to teach Art, when I possessed a Master’s Degree + 15 in Biology, which put me in a higher pay bracket than an inexperienced teacher with a Bachelor’s Degree, were slim to none. My dream of being an Art teacher turned out to be just that---a dream.
 

Following the 2010 auto accident, I was catapulted into the role of a pro se (pro per) litigant and justice fighter (“Pro se” is Latin for “in one's own behalf.” Anyone who appears before the Court without an attorney is considered pro se. The term “pro per” is also used to refer to a situation where a litigant represents themselves, without a lawyer. It is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase “in propria persona,” meaning “in their own person.”) This was not a role I was seeking, but instead, one that was unavoidable if I were to live by the values by which I was raised and to which I held dear. Because of my perseverance in seeking justice for myself and others who may follow in my footsteps, by taking legal actions in attempts to require powerful entities to follow the laws and court rules, these David vs. Goliath battles resulted in numerous falsehoods being presented in Court of Appeals Opinions and law firms’ blog entries that now dominate internet searches of my name.

You see, when my name is entered into a search engine, multiple Court of Appeals Opinions related to cases in which I was the Plaintiff, as well as unrelated law firms’ blog posts commentating on my cases, appear at the top of the search results. If you read these Opinions and blog posts, it is likely you will conclude that I am incompetent, not of sound mind, suffering from impaired judgment, or all three. This is because the Opinions and posts do not portray the truth about me, my actions, or the even the nature of my past legal cases.

I have been living in the shadows of these libelous court Opinions and law firms’ blog posts for far too long. It is time for the truth to come to light, which was the driving force behind the creation of this repurposed website. I hope you will take the time to seek the truth about me, and discover I am not at all the person described by the lawyers and judges in the writings that appear on the internet.

My pursuit for justice in the courts has also negatively affected the results of a preliminary background check of my name. An alert appears that there are "court or arrest records" pertaining to me. I assure you I've never been arrested. I've never been sued. I do not have a criminal record. The court records are for civil cases, and I was the Plaintiff, not the Defendant.

In the process of defending themselves in court battles, it is common for powerful entities to diminish the reputation of their opponents, lessening their credibility and discouraging others from listening to their legitimate complaints. This proved to be my own experience. Even other law firms never disclosed to have played a direct role in the litigation of my cases took it upon themselves to write blog posts about my cases which contain false information and negative portrayals of me, furthering the discreditation.

Because my side of the story (the truth) is not presented anywhere on the internet, I felt compelled to create this website, in an effort to explain who I really am, the important rights I diligently attempted to attain, and provide the truth and corroborating evidence regarding the cases whose Opinions and law firm blog entries appear on the internet. One way for someone to gain such an understanding is by reading my Applications to the Supreme Court, which represent direct rebuttals to the Court of Appeals Opinions.

As time permits, for each case I litigated pro se, I will be uploading to this website my Supreme Court Applications and other public documents that were filed by both parties with the Michigan Court of Appeals and Michigan Supreme Court. To make my cases easier to understand for a person who is inexperienced with litigation, I am also including simplified commentaries with links to important exhibits that were filed in the case, so the reader doesn't have to sort through the pleadings to locate key evidence.

It is my sincere hope that anyone considering me as a future friend, employee, customer/client, etc. will take the time to explore who I really am, the principles I stand behind, and the true nature of my character. I encourage you to read my side of the story rather than make assumptions about me based on Court of Appeals Opinions and law firms’ blog entries that contain provable untruths that misrepresent both the substance of my legal cases as well as my actions.

I hope you will realize that I, Tamara Filas, am a unique individual worth having in your corner. I am a scientist, naturalist, artist, photographer, writer, educator, lifelong learner, researcher, justice-fighter, truth-seeker, activist, and more. Most importantly, I am a person possessing the traits of honor, honesty, integrity, respect, loyalty, resilience, perseverance, reliability, creativity, compassion, and empathy.

It is imperative that people understand that statements appearing in court opinions are not always factual; and sometimes a valid case cannot be won due to the politics involved, or the fact that exposing a systemic injustice would be detrimental to the powerful entities benefiting from it.

Since people generally have a strong tendency to believe official court records and writings composed by lawyers or judges, the false narratives presented in the Court of Appeals Opinions and other law firms’ blogs have negatively affected my personal and professional relationships. Most people believe that a court opinion would, by its very nature as a legal document, necessarily speak the truth. They would be dead wrong. A court opinion is only as truthful as the lawyers who submitted pleadings to the court that were used as a basis for the judges to decide the case and construct their opinion. A court opinion is also only as truthful as the judges allow it to be, since they ultimately determine what "facts" to include from each party's pleadings, and what decision would be "politically correct" and allow certain schemes to continue, regardless of the laws and court rules in existence.

In my cases, it appears as if my pleadings and evidence were never even examined by the judges that constructed the opinions---they simply repeated the same false statements appearing in the Defendants' pleadings, without analyzing the evidence I provided in my pleadings that unequivocally disproved these statements. These untruths were not situations of “he said, she said”---they were easily exposed as falsehoods by an examination of my pleadings and supporting evidence. I competently disproved all of these misrepresentations and errors of fact in my pleadings and evidence provided to the Court of Appeals, yet they still appeared in the Opinions.

It is also important to understand that the false narratives provided by the Defendants that subsequently appeared in the Opinions served an even more sinister purpose---to allow the Courts to rule on different issues that didn’t even represent the nature of my cases, concealing the true substance of the case. I never even received rulings on the issues I presented in my complaints, even though I was the Plaintiff and I was the one who was supposed to be determining the issues I wanted to be litigated by the courts. For the courts to have actually ruled on the true issues of my cases would have been bad for business, which is why it didn't happen, no matter how clear my complaints were and how solid my arguments were.

It was my experience that when the courts didn’t want to rule on the true issues of the case presented by me, the Plaintiff, because they were either too political, or doing so would reveal a systemic injustice whereby countless people had already been and were continuing to be harmed by the current illegal practices of the entities acting as Defendants (i.e. insurance companies); the courts simply falsified the whole nature of the case, fabricated novel arguments that were not presented by either of the parties to the case, and ruled on imaginary issues instead.

After observing the detrimental effects of the inaccurate Court of Appeals Opinions and law firm blog entries, appearing at the very top of an internet search of my name, knowing that they would forever hinder or prevent the formation of any new personal and professional relationships in my life, I seriously considered legally changing my name. However, I am not ashamed of my endeavors. To the contrary, I am proud of what I tried to accomplish, because if I had been successful, it would have been of great value to acquire justice not only for me, but others in Michigan that would have also faced the same injustice under the current mismanagement of the courts, insurance systems, and educational systems operating in Michigan. Therefore, I made the decision to keep my name, and everything it stands for.

I continue to believe it is important to stand up for what is right, but I now understand that there are some battles I can never win, even if it is blatantly clear that I am right, and have all the laws, rules, and evidence to support my position. The court system and many other systems in society simply don't operate via laws---decisions are heavily influenced by politics and schemes. I learned that many laws on the books, and even the state court rules, are just for show, and are not always followed or enforced, as I found out the hard way.

From the Case Index Page, you can learn about each case by reading my commentary, examining the evidence proving the true nature of my cases and my actions, and following links to the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court pleadings filed by both parties.

This repurposed website, published in 2025, is dedicated to my mother, Kathleen Filas.

My mother, Kathleen Filas, taught me to always do what’s right and just, even when it is the most difficult thing one can do in a situation. She was always all about the principle of the matter at hand. She and I worked tirelessly to do what was right not only to protect my own interests, but for other people living in Michigan, facing similar injustices in their lives. We did what was right for the people, truth and justice, and definitely not what was easy for us, which would have been for me to simply do as I was told by various authority figures without ever questioning or researching the legality of their requests.

My mom taught me that it is often necessary to question authority. It has been my experience (even prior to the auto accident) that nearly every figure of authority I encountered (school administrators, union representatives and directors, insurance representatives, attorneys, judges, etc.) directed me to do things that were in violation of my collective bargaining agreement (employment contract), federal and state laws, or state court rules. My mom and I discovered the harsh reality that the attorneys and courts were not even following the Michigan Court Rules. In the majority of my cases, the Defendants were allowed to prevail simply due to the Courts’ blatant disregard for its own Court Rules! The courts allowed the Defendants to deny me rights and to perform technical maneuvers that would have been impossible under the Rules.

My mom and I spent over a decade of our time and energy fighting for what was right instead of simply accepting the unfair and illegal treatment I received from numerous entities following the auto accident. My legal cases consisted not only of first- and third-party personal injury cases related to the auto accident, but also cases against my employer (a public school district), and even an attorney I hired to represent me in the auto cases who breached his contract. Because my cases were so cut and dried, we truly believed I would win them, and that our assiduous work would prevent others from going through the stress and burden of having to pursue the same battles.

This experience was certainly not easy for us to pursue. My mom was caring for her paralyzed mother at home for five of the ten years we worked on my cases, which was a full-time job in and of itself. I was suffering from immense pain from the auto accident (I was unable to tolerate NSAIDS, and I refused to take prescription pain medication due to its known addictive and deleterious side effects). I struggled to stand at my computer desk for hours on end while working on the pleadings (I was unable to sit due to my spinal injuries). I had severe relentless everyday headaches for 8 full years after the accident. Some days, I was not even able to see the computer monitor clearly through the tears. My mom and I pulled countless all-nighters to meet the strict filing deadlines, sometimes submitting an online filing within mere minutes of its cutoff time (we never missed a single filing deadline). The immense stress we endured for years with no breaks most likely shortened both of our lives.

I was raised to be respectful of laws and rules. My mom and I believed laws were enforced by courts and that courts followed the court rules, but we couldn’t have been more wrong. It wasn’t until I had to pursue my auto cases as a pro se litigant after my attorney breached his hiring agreement and I couldn't find another attorney willing to uphold my right to medical privacy, that we began to realize that courts are politicized and do not actually serve to enforce laws on the books; and that lawyers, judges and courts will go to extraordinary lengths to break court rules to create a situation in which a person cannot win their case. It is now basically common knowledge in today’s times that courts are run by politics, but we were naïve then, and thought that courts were actually about serving justice.

My mom was integral to my fight for justice, providing moral and financial support, guidance, research, editing (she was an English major), etc. I could never have fought these battles without her. She inspired and motivated me to keep fighting for what was right, especially during the times it seemed too difficult to continue. She believed that one of the main things wrong in this world was that no one bothered to stand up for anything anymore. Most people aren’t even aware of their rights or familiar with the laws that govern their rights. I wasn’t either, until this experience.

Although our efforts didn’t allow us the satisfaction of winning any of my cases; and in hindsight, we lost valuable time we could have spent together doing things we loved to do, instead of taking on something so stressful, which ultimately proved to be an impossibility; it was still a learning experience that changed me and my mom forever. If I hadn’t tried to fight for my rights, I am certain I would have had regrets and wondered how my life would have turned out if I had put forth the effort and tried. I also would not have gained such a thorough understanding of the operation (or more accurately, the misoperation) of the courts. This knowledge would never have been attained if I had merely remained on the sidelines, passively allowing a lawyer to pursue my cases on my behalf, instead of participating in an active role as a pro se litigant.

The experience also transformed me into a much more outgoing person---I am no longer apprehensive about speaking my mind and standing up to people who are not acting legally or ethically. The experience also helped me realize that judges, lawyers and other people in authority are just people---they don’t automatically deserve one’s respect just because of their employment title.

I am also thankful and grateful for my father, Walt Filas’s, help with my legal endeavors. He was supportive in everything my mom and I tried to accomplish. Although he did not play a direct role in the construction of the content of the court pleadings, he provided financial and moral support; was indispensable regarding the labor-intensive preparation of the documents for filing; and was always there, behind the scenes. Before I began e-filing my court documents, in addition to having to make copies of documents to mail to the Defense Attorney(s) and court clerks, the Court of Appeals required seven separate copies of each filing, which was a daunting task, considering the amount of exhibits associated with each pleading. My dad spent many hours with me at Office Max, copying and assembling the filings, taking up the entire counter of provided workspace. Due to the injuries I sustained in the auto accident, document preparation was a physically demanding and painful task for me. My dad accompanied me on each and every trip to the various courts to file my pleadings. I didn’t have to walk all alone from the parking garage to the court building in Detroit, and I had good company for the long trips to Lansing to the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. Most importantly, while on the stand assertively presenting my oral arguments and responding to intimidating remarks and demands from both the Defense attorneys and the judges, it made all the difference knowing I had at least one supporter in the gallery: My dad faithfully attended and witnessed every single hearing.