In the past 21 years, we've had a few collection cases against attorneys. Although each case has its own circumstances, we’ve had the best success collecting from lawyers by filing suit. The trick, is to hire a good collection attorney that's not afraid to make the lawyer-to-lawyer courtesy call, and then if that doesn't work, will then go through the entire process... to the end.
In one case, we recovered a judgment, which was later included in the attorney's own personal bankruptcy. We never collected on this one; however, the abstract of judgment remains recorded in several counties and also appears on the attorney's credit report.
In another case, we filed a suit claiming "theft of service", which is fraud, and provides for greater damages. The defendant-attorney in this case came begging to settle this suit. We got all of our money, interest, plus attorney's fees. Believe it or not, he wanted us to consider working for him again - ha!
There have been others, and if there's one thing I can pass on, it's to keep your collections tight. As soon as any client quits returning your calls, it's time to DO SOMETHING! And, just because the client is an attorney, doesn't make them exempt from paying your bill. The laws apply equally.
Good luck!
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