Has Paul ever gotten in trouble for his abuse of Pokemon?

[Lucifer Morningstar]

Maybe it has happened before. Maybe not. I can imagine that in the real world, someone like Paul would have become a juvenile delinquent, get thrown into detention centers, jail cells, etc.

That's a bit over judgmental for someone who has not seen the entire series.

Paul might not have heartfelt Hallmark friendships with Pokemon as Ash does but hard does not have to be abusive and in Paul's case it's consent that differentiates it. His Pokemon are brutes who understand and appreciate his technique and he attempts to select them based on that compatible drive.

He might condemn Pokemon for not being strong enough but that's just his way of saying 'if you can't take the heat get out of my kitchen' which is disagreeable for being asinine but valid and don't we all kind of do that in the games? Don't we tend to throw away the ones whose stats we don't like?

Chimchar was the exception due to a case of incompatibility. Due to his trauma with the Zangoose positive/affectionate encouragement was just more effective for him than pushing, something Paul just didn't understand and wasn't willing to provide and despite Chimchar's suffrage with Paul, Infernape shows a level of respect in their brief interactions in Paul's recent Journeys appearance.

As for authorities and iconic figures such as professors, I don't believe such characters have ever witnessed him training and Paul respects their experience and advice. It's just novices and those he doesn't see as pushing their Pokemon that he looks down on.
His Journeys appearance is once again a good example. He was offered a gym leader position so went to Professor Oak to expand his knowledge of Pokemon.

He's not just some asshole who just gets a kick out of bullying others, he's dedicated to being a proper educated trainer and actually doesn't even like the spotlight of big tournaments so only participates in them if he feels there is something of value he can get from them.

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Releasing pokemon,over training Chimchar and roasting Ash made Paul the biggest villain in the entire series. He puts Hunter J,Cyrus,Lysandre,Mewtwo and Giovanni to shame.

 

[Gengarzilla]

The thing with Paul is that people love to assume his treatment of Chimchar is how he treats all his Pokémon, when even the show itself has debunked such an assumption as completely false. Chimchar was the unfortunate special case in which Paul was so blinded by his desire to control Chimchar's hidden depths that he uncharacteristically tried to force this clearly incompatible "partnership" beyond the point where he would have just cut his losses and released any other Pokémon.

Personally, I don't think Paul told Ash and co. the full story of why he wanted to have Chimchar. The bullheaded and extremely stubborn approach he had towards that one particular Pokémon doesn't stack up against the cold but ultimately professional approach he takes towards his other longterm Pokémon. And also, he never ever pushed his Torterra to rely on Overgrow despite that ability being the Grass counterpart of Blaze, something he would have known about when said Torterra was his starter. Nor did he put obsessive importance on other power-boosting abilities like Ursaring's Guts. Someone who doesn't hate Paul on impulse could figure out that something was very different with Chimchar's situation.

My theory is that Reggie's first Pokémon happened to be a Chimchar which fully evolved to Infernape, and Paul's whole deal with being much harder on his Chimchar than his other Pokémon all boils down to the one-sided sibling rivalry; he's actively and knowingly trying to prove that he's better than the older brother who "gave it all away" in the most direct manner possible, by having the better Infernape.
Thus his insistence on sticking to this Chimchar deal wasn't simply about having a strong Fire type for his team as he claimed, because he would have got that with much less hassle by dropping Chimchar for his Magmar sooner. No, for him, training his own Chimchar all the way up to heights that his brother's once-Chimchar never reached was a far more personal trial that held as much weight as his battle against Brandon (another moment where he stopped behaving rationally, now notice how both moments involved that big bro he views as a weak-willed quitter).

Where people refuse to think further, operate on pure dislike, and only make themselves see an abusive dickhead character who shouldn't be training Pokémon at all, I actually looked into the situation, examined the same character, and instead saw a troubled young man who had great difficulties keeping his deeply debilitating personal hangups out of his professional Pokémon training career.
He should be laying on a therapist's long chair thing where he can air out his problems in life, not laying on a bed in some holding cell as though he's somehow equal to the literal crime boss Giovanni. Moralistic-fuelled hatred only blinds people to the possibilities, explanations, and motivations that a cooler detached head can consider.

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

My theory is that Reggie's first Pokémon happened to be a Chimchar which fully evolved to Infernape, and Paul's whole deal with being much harder on his Chimchar than his other Pokémon all boils down to the one-sided sibling rivalry; he's actively and knowingly trying to prove that he's better than the older brother who "gave it all away" in the most direct manner possible, by having the better Infernape.
Thus his insistence on sticking to this Chimchar deal wasn't simply about having a strong Fire type for his team as he claimed, because he would have got that with much less hassle by dropping Chimchar for his Magmar sooner. No, for him, training his own Chimchar all the way up to heights that his brother's once-Chimchar never reached was a far more personal trial that held as much weight as his battle against Brandon (another moment where he stopped behaving rationally, now notice how both moments involved that big bro he views as a weak-willed quitter).

So I guess it's safe to assume that you don't think Paul's Drapion originally belonged to Reggie.

 

[WatcherMark]

I wouldn't have called it abuse. Shinji's training method was very harsh, absolutely, but definitely not what I would call abusive. The only time I had an issue with it was during the Tag Battle arc when he had his whole team gang up on Hikozaru but even then that's argubly just Satoshi's method of setting his party members against each other to practice moves but taken a bit further. Plus. apart from the poor little fire chimp, none of his other Pokemon were seen having an issue with his methods and they seemed to work for the most part.

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

I'm not really sure how I feel about dismissing a person's actions to another just because other people never seemed to be bothered by said actions. The Pokémon anime always dodged the ethics issue surrounding Pokemon(the whole capture pokemon against their will thing) with introducing the idea that there was a partnership involved between Trainer and pokemon, as well as giving the pokemon their own sentience and ability to think.

Paul's treatment of Chimchar was just crappy behavior that should've been handled better. It's not a "Chimchar and Paul weren't compatable" issue so much as it is a "Paul was unable to be less of an asshole to Chimchar and forced Chimchar to fit HIS needs".

 

[JusticeGundam]

While I understand the point of Paul's character, I think he suffers from a pretty blatant case of writer bias.
A major problem I have with him is that he never suffered any of the consequences of his bad behaviour, like abusing Pokemon or abandoning them if they're not strong enough. I honestly would be okay with him if he was meant to be a villain, but then the series tries to whitewash him with the whole "different training methods" nonsense and the abuse apologism, which is a major deal breaker for me.
Despite appearances to the contrary, Paul never actually has a proper character arc; he's only presented in continuously more positive light, despite doing nothing to redeem himself or showing repetance for his actions. Following many episodes of treating his Pokemon callously at best (notably disparaging and foisting an Azumarill off onto another trainer after it lost one battle, and even claiming that treating Pokemon well spoils them and makes them less useful in battle), he's shown exhibiting a level of care for Pokemon never even hinted at before.
Somewhere between Lake Valor and the Lily of the Valley Conference, he became inexplicably kinder, admitting that Barry put up a good battle after defeating him 3-0, and thanking his Electivire for trying his best after losing to Infernape - which was totally out of character for Paul.

Sorry, I'm calling it for what it is. Bad writing.