Choice covers rent disbarment or hellish torments (4,3,9)
I believe the answer is:
fire and brimstone
'hellish torments' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'choice covers rent disbarment or' is the wordplay.
'choice' becomes 'fine' (synonyms).
'covers' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'rent' indicates anagramming the letters (rent can mean torn or damaged).
'disbarment'+'or'='disbarmentor'
'disbarmentor' with letters rearranged gives 'reandbrimsto'.
'fine' going around 'reandbrimsto' is 'FIRE-AND-BRIMSTONE'.
(Other definitions for fire and brimstone that I've seen before include "Hellish torments" , "damnation" .)