Broward deputies this week arrested former Fort Lauderdale personal-injury lawyer Todd J. Herman, 42, after investigators alleged he siphoned off more than $100,000 in client settlement money between 2022 and 2025. Herman, who was disbarred last year, was booked into the Broward County Main Jail on Tuesday and brought to bond court Wednesday morning, where a judge set his bond at $200,000.
According to The Florida Bar, Herman was temporarily suspended on Oct. 6, 2023, and again on July 29, 2024, before the Florida Supreme Court ultimately disbarred him effective Sept. 25, 2025. The Bar’s public discipline notice lists a Fort Lauderdale business address for Herman and describes failures to properly account for and turn over client funds.
As reported by WPLG Local 10, a Broward Sheriff’s Office detective wrote in a warrant request that Herman misappropriated more than $100,000 from 2022 through 2025 and that clients in both Miami-Dade and Broward counties accused him of withholding settlement payouts. The warrant, signed by a judge, lists felony counts that include obtaining property by fraud, money laundering, a financial-structure violation and misapplication of an insurance premium.
Felony Counts Put Former Attorney in Serious Legal Crosshairs
The charges outlined in the warrant are felony-level offenses that can lead to prison time and court-ordered restitution if prosecutors ultimately secure convictions, and South Florida authorities have shown little patience in similar trust-account cases. For example, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida last year obtained a federal prison sentence for a disbarred South Florida lawyer who stole client funds, according to a Department of Justice release.
Local court and arrest records form the backbone of the current allegations, and prosecutors will decide whether to file formal charges as the investigation moves forward. Herman, admitted to The Florida Bar in 2010, has also been hit with civil suits and default judgments accusing him of failing to deliver settlement payments, according to court records cited by Local 10.
The case remains under investigation, and officials have not yet filed an indictment. Court filings and official statements are expected to lay out the next steps. This story will be updated as additional records and statements become available.
