A personal injury lawyer has been sued by a former associate who claims he was using a runner to drum up clients and retaliated against her for objecting to the practice.

In her Middlesex County suit, Milagros Alvarez also alleges that after she left Karim Arzadi’s Perth Amboy firm, Arzadi tried to deter clients from following her by telling them she had been caught passing bad checks and would probably be disbarred.