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You Can Be Pretty Sure He's Not a Paralegal If...

By Lynne DeVenny

...he threatens to shoot you in the knee cap if you don't pay him.

Local media outlets are reporting that a Pennsylvania man, Michael Crawford, allegedly posed as a paralegal and promised to help a fellow with his medical/legal case.

Never mind that Crawford wasn't even posing as a lawyer. The victim still ponied up around $5,000 in cash to pay Crawford since April.

Apparently Crawford didn't promise to do a great job with the legal case. Instead, he allegedly told his "client" that he'd have someone shoot him in the kneecap if he did not pay up.

Crawford was arrested yesterday and arraigned by District Judge Jessica E. Brewbaker on two counts of robbery, theft by deception, theft by unlawful taking, extortion, terroristic threats, intimidation of witnesses or victims and harassment. Brewbaker set bail at $100,000 and remanded Crawford to prison when he was unable to make bail.

Court documents show Crawford has a lengthy criminal history, including drug, theft and assault charges.

Now, I know a lot of my readers are talented debt collection specialists, but I'm pretty sure that none of them collect past due bills by threatening to pull a Jack Bauer on the debtors.

"I shot her above the knee cap! She can still walk! You make me shoot her again, she'll be in a wheelchair the rest of her life." ~ Jack Bauer

Times are tough, but if a paralegal threatens to knee-cap you to collect legal fees, he's not a paralegal. And you can take that to the bank.

Source: PennLive.com

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on September 02, 2010 (boomark / email).