Family Law Season 2, Episode 14: The Quality of Mercy

1

The Choice

Lynn is pitted against her old acquaintance, cutthroat lawyer Joe Celano, in a case involving a child's adopted parents and the Guatemalan woman he was taken from; Danni's reaction to Lynn's partnership offer unnerves Lynn.

60 min

2

One Mistake

Lynn is faced with a moral and legal dilemma when her client in a child custody case confesses to molesting his daughter; Randi tries the potentially ground-breaking case of a man suing his bartender for serving him drinks that led to his having a one-night stand which destroyed his marriage; the attorneys decide to expand their practices by forming a partnership.

60 min

3

Affairs of State

Lynn tries valiantly to help a dying friend obtain a divorce from her politician husband, who is trying to stall the proceedings because her death will give him the sympathy vote in the upcoming election; Lynn makes Joe a partner over Rex and Randi's objections, while the partnership decision regarding Danni comes to a head.

60 min

4

Going Home

Rex fights to get his schizophrenic brother released from the county mental hospital; Danni and Randi take opposite sides in an ugly custody case involving an emotionally disturbed 5-year-old. However the case takes a suprising turn when it's learned that the child was switched at birth with another.

60 min

5

Telling Lies (1)

Danni is appointed case advocate for a 9-year old boy. But when she learns he is being brutally abused by his foster father, her pleas to Children's Services for an investigation go unheard; Lynn represents grandparents seeking custody of their delinquent teenaged grandson when his parents send him overseas to a prison-like boarding school.

60 min

6

Telling Lies (2)

Danni & Joe bring a class-action suit against the Dept. of Children's Services; Lynn and Rex compete for the same caregiver.

60 min

7

For Love

Rex defends his schizophrenic brother against a murder charge when he pushes someone into the path of an incoming car. But the job is made more difficult when his brother insists that he did nothing wrong and won't let him plead insanity; Lynn and Randi go to the INS in order to get Andres readmitted to the U.S. and end up learning a shocking secret.

60 min

8

Family Values

Joe and Lynn butt heads in the case of a hospital's decision to drop one man from the kidney recipient list and replace him with one of their doctors; Danni represents a couple trying to keep custody of their chimpanzee; Randi and Andres have trouble dealing with his return to the firm.

60 min

9

Echoes

When Andres attacks a man his mother claims is the Chilean army colonel who killed her husband and tortured her 27 years ago, the firm sets out to prove that the man is a notorious war criminal.

60 min

10

Generations

When Randi helps a battered woman get a restraining order against her husband, the Dept. of Children's Services decides that the woman is an unfit mother because she chose to stay with her abusive husband; Lynn is torn between acting as Cassie's mother or her friend; Danni gets another shot at becoming partner.

60 min

11

Intentions

Danni defends a woman charged with murder when she miscarries her baby after a drinking binge. Though disgusted by her client's behavior, Danni feels she has to defend a pregnant woman's right to choose what to do with her body; Lynn represents a hooker seeking palimony from a longtime ex-boyfriend/client.

60 min

12

Film at Eleven

Lynn sues a local television station when it airs exploitative footage of her shirt being ripped off by an angry mob; When she tells her the wrong court date, Patricia is forced to impersonate Viveca to prevent a client from losing a case that involves a wedding dress that wouldn't fit.

60 min

13

Separation

Randi and Joe fight to keep a set of newborn Siamese twins from being surgically separated; Lynn is upset when Michael's new girlfriend tries to bond with her kids.

60 min

14

The Quality of Mercy

Lynn defends a man charged with manslaughter when he helps his terminally ill wife committ suicide; Viveca sues a beachfront property landlord for discrimination when he refuses her residency because she's a lawyer.

60 min

15

Liar's Club (1)

When a 19 year old student who worked for Joe over the summer is arrested for drug trafficking, the US Attorney offers him a deal: help nail a drug dealer and he can go free. Though Jamie is eager to take the deal and rat on one of Joe's former clients, Joe warns against it. Meanwhile Danni helps a 36 year old sue his rich parents for cutting off his allowance and against her better judgement finds herself falling for him,

60 min

16

Liar's Club (2)

The firm is at risk when Joe is arrested for money laundering by an overzealous attorney; Danni's unemployed boyfriend, Alex, asks to move in with her.

60 min

17

Soul Custody

Danni and Randi must deal with a complicated child custody case involving a deeply religious couple. The mother, an Orthodox Jew, and the father, a born again Christian, both want sole custody of their 5 year old daughter so she can live by one faith. The trouble is: how to convince a judge that one faith is better ?

60 min

18

Safe at Home

Rex defends Lynn's friend who's charged with manslaughter after her younger son kills her oldest with her handgun. Complicating things is the boy's father who is suing for sole custody of the boy, placing an anti-gun Lynn in the position of defending her friend who continues to own a gun.

60 min

19

The Gay Divorcee

Joe and Lynn fight to help a gay man retain custody of his two adopted children after his partner of 12 years gets engaged to a woman and sues for sole custody; Randi tries to help a 55 year old woman get back child support for the father who abandoned her at a young age.

60 min

20

Bringing up Babies

Lynn and Randi help a woman who left her baby at the doorstep of Holt & Associates; The boy who Danni helped months ago asks her to be his foster mother.

60 min

21

Americans

Lynn and Joe help a woman whose ex-husband kidnapped their children and now seeks refuge at the Indian reservation where Federal laws do not apply; Danni continues in her quest to adopt Rapheal.

60 min

22

Recovery

Randi fights for custody of her granddaughter after her daughter is killed by her abusive husband; Rex helps a rock star get a permit to open a drug rehab center in Beverly Hills; Danni's petition to adopt is denied and she is devestated to learn that one of the partners wrote a negative letter to the Dept. of Children Services,

60 min

23

Clemency

The staff has a week to stop the execution of a 25 year old man who shot up his high school 7 years earlier.

60 min

24

Planting Seeds

Lynn works to get a 14-year old prostitute emancipated so she can be independent and get off the streets; Joe and Danni represent a man who wants custody of the embryos he and his ex-wife have frozen; Randi turns to an unlikely source when she can't get her granddaughter to sleep through the night.

60 min