Here’s an interesting one: The Conroe Courier reports a half-million dollar civil verdict against a criminal lawyer in Montgomery County, Texas (the county to the north of Harris County) whose client accused him of extortion. Apparently the lawyer charged the client $1000 for a motion to revoke probation on a felony DWI case and then, after the hearing, demanded another $5,000. Details are sketchy, but there was an allegation that the lawyer passed a message along to Hernandez “mentioning prison as a consequence”.

The jury took exception, found the lawyer liable, and awarded $500,000 in actual damages. They were scheduled to begin deliberating punitive damages when the lawyer agreed to pay $100,000 in settlement.