The Drunk Driver Wrecked His Car. Allstate Wrecked His Peace — Inside the $100 Million Lawsuit That Started Over a $45 Rental Car Dispute
By: the Shelby County Observers Public Affairs Desk
October 9, 2025
For years, Allstate has promised that its customers are “in good hands.” But Pastor Gerald Kiner says that when he needed those hands the most, they let go.
In a new federal lawsuit seeking $100 million in damages, Kiner describes a nightmarish sequence that began after a drunk driver slammed into his vehicle on July 1. He survived the crash, but the ordeal that followed, he says, was almost worse: a billion-dollar insurance empire turning petty over a $45-a-day rental car.
Kiner’s policy entitled him to a 45-day rental, long enough for his totaled vehicle to be inspected and a settlement check issued. Instead, he alleges, Allstate and its affiliates began calling within days—pressuring him to surrender the rental before the claim was even processed, before he had any check in hand.
“I believed I was in good hands,” Kiner told Shelby County Observers. “But those hands pushed me out the door. The drunk driver wrecked my car, but Allstate wrecked my emotional state, my spirit, my peace, and my faith in what it means to be in good hands.”
The complaint portrays a man juggling medical therapy for whiplash, the daily care of a special-needs toddler, and a company that seemed more determined to reclaim a car than to honor a contract.
Now, the Memphis pastor who has spent decades serving his community says he’s standing up not just for himself but for every policyholder who has felt small in the face of a multibillion-dollar insurer. His filing accuses Allstate, Esurance, and National General of bad faith, breach of contract, and emotional distress, arguing that their actions were deliberate, not bureaucratic.
For Kiner, the lawsuit is about more than money. It’s about the betrayal that comes when a slogan—“You’re in good hands with Allstate”—collides with reality: a father standing in the parking lot of a rental car company, forced to return his vehicle prematurely by his own insurer, wondering how he will get to pick up his two-year-old son from school.
According to Kiner, the emotional toll of Allstate’s handling of his rental car claim eclipsed even the trauma of the crash itself. “Being hit by a drunk driver was terrifying,” he said, “but what came afterward—being ignored, pressured, and treated like a nobody by a company that promised to protect me—cut deeper. There was no way to explain to my son why we no longer had a car. The accident hurt my body,” Kiner said quietly. “But Allstate hurt my spirit.”
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