How to Collect from a Stubborn Client

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This one’s easy: you just kidnap him until the family pays the ransom, I mean fees.  Works best on the client’s wedding day.

Police in Waco, Texas, said that Paula Allen, a 51-year-old attorney who had defended Rolando Castelan from a variety of criminal charges, kidnapped Castelan from his wedding reception on December 10 with the help of three "associates."  (I assume they just meant "helpers,"or else law firm associates in Texas are really being asked to do a lot for their firms these days.)  They cuffed him and drove around while Castelan called his friends and family in an attempt to scrounge up the money he owed her, apparently about $5,000.  Castelan was eventually able to escape, police said, but had been held for four hours.

Allen may have thought she was just acting as a "bounty hunter," because the $5,000 was the amount of Castelan’s bond — she had vouched for it but then he failed to show up for court.  Even in Texas, though, this seems to be a little beyond the pale.  Allen was arrested this week and charged with felony kidnapping.

ABC News