As a member of a national committee of attorneys assigned to civil rights cases, Judd must defend a client he'd prefer not to: a Southern sheriff charged with violating the civil rights of a harassed Northern writer who was found dead shortly after the sheriff was seen taking him away in his car.

Judd defends an alcoholic woman who has been charged with hit-and-run even though she has not had a drink in years. It is soon obvious the evidence against her is flimsy, but the judge in the case denies every motion Judd tries to prove this. Judd soon decides to show that the judge is biased due to his own unsuccessful battle against alcohol.

A man finds his job and reputation being destroyed by a minor mistake on a computer card, and in his attempts to do something about it he may be digging himself in even deeper.

Judd defends a woman who admits to killing her invalid husband. She claims she was in fear for her life because of his increasingly violent and erratic behavior, but no one else in her town claims to have seen that side of him.

A onetime film star, hoping for a comeback, asks Judd to represent a scriptwriter to help him get out of a restrictive contract with a Hollywood producer. But the contract is more ironclad than was first realized, and soon that becomes a moot point, as the producer is murdered and the writer is charged with the crime.

Ray Elliott, an attorney who is well known for his advocacy against the draft, is charged with murder after a young man he was counseling immolates himself in public to avoid conscription, and prosecutors contend Elliott encouraged the young man to do it.

A young woman begs Judd to defend her friend, an escapee from a prison farm, who claims he will be killed if he is sent back there. The man claims to have killed a convict/trustee who tried to stop his escape. But when Judd asks about this at the farm, the officials deny the man was ever killed. Soon Judd is determined to close the prison farm---if he can get the escapee to tell where the many murdered prisoners are buried.

A longshoreman dealing with loan sharks who have taken over his union is charged with the murder of the union's steward, who he believed was assisting them in charging him exorbitant interest on a loan.

Judd defends a skipper (Leslie Nielsen) charged with the murder of four people aboard his boat. The only witness is a little girl who was also wounded during the slaughter.

Ben's client is charged with killing the abortionist who illegally operated on his daughter and almost killed her. Judd believes the man has a violent streak. Ben uncovers many dark secrets when the case goes to trial.

A lady lawyer, accused of intentionally running down a woman in an alley, uses different ways to pressure Judd into taking her apparently shaky case.

In Juvenile Court, without benefit of counsel, 17-year-old Kenny Carter, Jr. is consigned to the county Juvenile Home for three years based on the charge of stealing and wrecking a car, for which he vaguely denies guilt. Judd steps in to uphold Carter's full rights under due process, but Carter is reluctant to cooperate, as he is concealing a terrible secret.

The kleptomaniac daughter of a wealthy woman is charged with grand theft. She insists she is innocent, but proving it would involve telling a secret which could jeopardize her family situation.

An oil company executive is charged with the murder of a man who had been blackmailing him. The defendant says the victim stumbled during a fight and fell off a platform accidentally, but two witnesses insist that he was pushed.

Judd defends the playboy son of a millionaire hotel owner who has been charged with the murder of the hotel's bookmaker, whom he was in debt to.

After his client Bruzzy Burke is convicted, Judd continues to work to try to appeal the conviction, even though he is fired by Bruzzy's millionaire father. His first step is to discredit the witness whose surprise testimony led to the conviction, and to use new witnesses---but one of them winds up dead.

A headstrong, controversial priest answers a desperate call from one of his students, a young woman who has been obviously smitten with him. She tells him she is going to kill herself unless he comes to her apartment. The priest comes, only to find himself in a situation in which the girl's boyfriend is accidentally shot and killed. Judd defends the priest, but the case is complicated by the emotionally unstable girl's refusal to cooperate and tell the truth.

Judd represents architect Paul Christopher in his suit against a former police chief turned special investigator, who is ruthlessly harassing Christopher in his attempt to prove him guilty of conspiracy in the assassination of a mayor.

An old classmate of Ben's is accused of the brutal and senseless murder of three young women in a park. Though it is obvious to both Judd and Ben that the man needs psychiatric help, he still insists he is completely innocent of the murders---and so does a psychic friend of his.

Joe Maddox is desperate to find a decent job after being eased out of the editor's position he held for years. But he makes the mistake of confronting the former employer whom he blames for the loss of his job, resulting in the man's death and Maddox being charged with his murder.

Judd takes the case of a pregnant young woman who was found outside the scene of a burglary and charged with it.

Jady Crews is arrested on a minor charge when he tries to stop his black militant son's group from using a gun. Judd easily gets that charge dropped, but the arrest brings to light the fact that Crews escaped from prison years earlier in South Carolina, where he had been convicted of murder after a traffic accident. Though Judd is sure he can get the conviction overturned, Crews' son hopes to use his father's plight to bolster his group's claim that a black man can't receive justice through laws made by whites.

An old friend of Judd objects to his son's friendship with a young man whom he thinks is a homosexual. Later, when the father is shot in an altercation, the son's friend is accused of attempted murder.

Judd defends an ex-cop who claims that he was framed for murder after he tried to expose corruption within the department.

A football player asks Judd to represent him in fighting his late wife's parents for custody of his son. But soon the case takes on a more serious turn, as the grandparents accuse him of killing their daughter.