As a young child, Allison Tate had discovered the bodies of her parents, apparently killed by an intruder. Shortly after her twenty-first birthday, she found the body of Marsha Gold, killed in a similar matter. When this thrust her back into the Linder Sanitarium in which she'd spent most of her life since her parents murdered, Bob Ranier (her father's former business partner, like an uncle to her) hires Matlock to prove that Allison is innocent of her murder. Matlock has an unlikely ally in Warren Kreitzer, an insurance attorney who is supposed to be on vacation, but will do whatever he can to protect Allison.

Eugene Dobbs and Nolan Wheeler are the perfect combination -- Dobbs presents the cases, and Wheeler does all the legwork. After Dobbs is unable to keep the promises he makes to football coach John Kramer, Dobbs meets his maker one night at the office, with Kramer as the prime suspect. Matlock takes the case, in part to prove to Kramer that not all lawyers are schmucks like Dobbs, and in part because the list of people who want Dobbs dead is getting longer by the minute as Matlock and Conrad find an interesting link between Dobbs, the owner of a local water park, and Dobbs' wife.

Matlock defends a wealthy widow charged with the murder of her husband, while Michelle helps to defend a father accused of murdering the drug dealer who got his child hooked...a dealer who just happened to be a cop.

While defending Judge Eller in his murder trial, Conrad uncovers the connection between the killing of a mayor and a pornography production using underage girls.

Duncan and Clara Farmington seemed to have the perfect marriage. Now they want to have the perfect divorce. What starts out as a simple division of property turns nasty as Leanne represents the wife and Ben the husband. At the same time, a scam artist tries to sue Matlock for millions after injuring himself on Matlock's property.

Matlock invites homeless man Lenny to live with him while trying to find out if the archbishop was meant to die in a plot including an ex-football player, his wife, her lover, and the mafia.

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Matlock refuses to believe that a young piano player committed suicide, nor does the father of the girl who hires Matlock to find out what really happened.

A lawyer who is a fan of Matlock's is accused of murdering a blackmailing P.I.

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While at a triathlon, Matlock runs into a former client, a retired FBI agent trying to solve an old case.

Cliff's old college chum Craig Browning is defending Cameron Ivers on charges of vehicular manslaughter, and is being blackmailed about an affair he had to plead his client a certain way. Craig hires Cliff to meet the blackmailer to keep his hands clean, but when Scott Aston turns out dead, suspicion turns to Cliff, who needs to find the real killers. With Jerri's help, they manage to find out that Aston worked for John Robinson and Mark Reeves, two men who frequently like to get one-up on Ivers in the business world, and that the woman Craig has been having an affair with was their secretary. Ben prepares for his fortieth reunion by dieting to fit into his old choral suit.

When Cameron Ivers is killed in a hit and run accident, Matlock decides to take a closer look at Robinson and Reeves, hoping that if he can tie them to Cameron Ivers' death he'll be able to tie them to Scott Aston's death and clear Cliff. After gathering together a number of people Scott Aston had been investigating who were supposed to be dead, Matlock heads to Florida where he finds Chuck Ratner, and Cliff and Jerri learn that the people are all connected because they all turned down the same kind of life insurance. Matlock continues his quest to lose weight by his reunion, but fires his personal trainer.

Matlock defends a lawyer accused of murdering an associate who'd accused him of botching a lawsuit involving toxic waster polluters.

When Matlock is kidnapped, Michelle and Conrad go through Ben's old cases to try to figure out who is holding him hostage.

Howard and Amy have all their dreams answered when Jill plans to give them the child she was carrying. After Jill changes her mind and is found dead, Howard and Amy are the prime suspects in her murder, and Matlock sets out to prove that the birth father may have also had a motive.

Michelle is taken hostage by Ned Billings, who blames Matlock for his brother (James Billings, The Professor) committing suicide after being convicted of murder, thanks to Ben. Tyler and Julie also show up and end up as Ned's hostages, and they try to use the tactics they've seen Matlock use in courtrooms and interrogations to stay alive and convince Ned not to kill Ben.

Jimmy le Grand is Matlock's favorite country singer of all time. When he's accused of a hit-and-run, Matlock leaps at the chance to defend him and to house the country legend in his own home, and soon realises that is hero has turned into an alcoholic and a generally unenjoyable person.

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A stealer is accused of murdering the man who closed the book on his thefts.

When radio disk jockey Arthur Saxon is accused of murdering rival D.J. Robby Moore, Michelle asks Ben to defend him. Ben agrees because Michelle swears he's the kindest, most gentlest man she's ever known, but Ben soon realises that Michelle's new boyfriend is anything but.

Matlock reluctantly agrees to hire free-spirited rock star Angel after Charlene reveals she's already taken the job for them. Angel has been accused of killing her manager, and due to an alcohol induced black-out, can't even offer herself an alibi for the night. Matlock gets more and more angry when Angel continues to ignore his suggestions at toning down her life-style, but luckily he's able to get through to her before her attitude gets her convicted of murder.

Matlock is hired to defend a popular actor when he's accused of killing the man who ran the sex-therapy clinic where he was staying, ostensibly for releasing his name to the press. He's got a temporary thorn in his side, though, in the form of Cassie Phillips, a law student he once made an off-hand comment to about looking him up for a job...she took him a lot more seriously than he had intended.

Michelle agrees to defend college chum Andrea Morrow after she is accused of murdering her abusive lover, Clay Graham. Matlock soon becomes convinced that the murderer was Clay's blind 'friend', Arthur Hampton, but will have a devil of a time proving how a blind man managed to carry off a near-perfect murder.

When Leanne's ex-husband Peter is charged with the murder of his friend and boss, once the truth comes out about Peter's possible motive in the killing, Matlock despises his ex-son-in-law more than ever.