Amy gears up for the custody battle over Lauren; Vincent takes a job at the local newspaper to help him overcome a severe case of writer's block; Amy suffers from a bad bout of insomnia that's coupled with some interesting dreams in the few hours that she's able to sleep; Maxine investigates why a boy from a loving family persists in sleepwalking far from home; Amy decides the fate of a teenaged athlete when her parents disagree on how her gymnastics training is affecting her life; Lauren and Amy have an ongoing battle over bedtime; Amy must decide if she'll allow the children of combative parents to be represented by their own attorney.

Heeding the request of counsel to deliver one of her ""rants"" at a sentencing hearing, Amy lectures a young drug dealer whose mother has made tremendous sacrifices to provide him with a better life; much to Peter's dismay, Maxine accepts a date from an attractive man she meets at the diner; Amy gets ""backwater detail"" subbing for another judge, and travels with Bruce to a small town to hear a case centered on the misdiagnosis and overmedication of its teenage boys; as her abductor's case comes to trial, Lisa and Vincent argue when her fears for the possibility of acquittal, and thus her safety, increase; pending the outcome of an investigation, Susie is back at work after a one week paid suspension and, over Maxine's objections, sets in motion a chain of events which eventually leads to the death of a young mother; Amy and Bruce have divergent reactions when confronted with intolerance during their trip; Maxine unsuccessfully tries to resign, and ends up being blackmailed into acceptin

Amy seeks to have Lauren qualified as a ""gifted"" student; Maxine agrees to take a anger management class after going too far in insulting a coworker and accosting the boy who vandalized the Gray home; Amy dates a detective who's ""out of her league""; Vincent agrees to be Donna's birthing partner; Amy presides at the sentencing hearing for a teenager who intentionally maimed a rival player during a hockey game.

Amy gets to know Rob, Lauren's very attractive sensei, better when he brings Lauren home from class after Amy has forgotten to pick her up; Maxine finds some powerful allies in her quest to open a facility devoted to helping victims of child abuse; Amy enlists other judges to volunteer their free time to finalize long-delayed adoptions; Donna becomes depressed when Oscar reveals that he is guilty of his mother's murder; Amy is asked to decide whether an exorcism is in the best interests of a young girl; Jared refuses to let Maxine push him away; Amy reluctantly hires Rob's niece as Lauren's new babysitter.

Amy hears a manslaughter case involving a 15-year-old boy who's into goth and accused of luring a girl into a mutual suicide pact; Maxine investigates allegations that a boy is being neglected by his mother; Gillian meets a man she's been corresponding with via the Internet.

The Sanctuary House staff works together to determine the identity of the adult who molested a twelve year old boy who confessed to raping his five year old sister; after Bruce arbitrates a visitation schedule disagreement between a divorced couple and wonders if their child is being abused, Sean offers his help; Carole persuades Vincent to ignore his agent's advice to make his book more commercial; Amy faces a swarmy host and his ignorant, self-serving politician guest as she appears on a tv talk show in defense of the juvenile justice system.

Amy must decide the appropriate punishments for a high school gang leader who tortured an undercover police officer, and for a teenage girl who perpetrated day-trading fraud; Maxine helps an abused little girl at Sanctuary House locate her long-lost dog; Donna goes to annoying extremes to make Vincent's novel a success; Sean tries to get Maxine to spend more time at D.C.F. and less at Sanctuary House; before he sets off on a pilgrimage, Stuart does his best to seduce Amy.

Lauren asks if ""cheating"" was the reason her parents divorced; Bruce warns Amy that she's being set up after Judge Keeler asks to observe her in court; Maxine enlists Kyle's extreme sports expertise in supporting a teenager with low self-esteem; Amy presides over the sentencing hearing of a teenaged girl who assaulted three gang members with a baseball bat; a police officer asks Amy to officiate at her divorce ceremony; Bruce and Amy iron out some communication issues; Kyle and Amy finally have it out over the incident in the past that caused the rift in their relationship; Amy hears the case of teenager who wants to be emancipated so that he can contest his stepmother's decision to keep his comatose father on life support.

When a teenager whom neither parent wanted and Amy placed in a locked facility escapes and comes into D.C.F. with bruises she says were caused by abuse at the facility, Maxine's decision to have her returned to the facility leads to tragedy; Amy attends the tenth reunion of her Harvard Law School class and is disheartened by how petty, mean-spirited, and sleazy her former law school best friends have become, until Barry shows up unexpectedly as her white knight and saves the day; Michael makes it obvious that he is still attracted to Amy, and expresses regret over their divorce and his marriage to Leisha; Maxine scoffs when Sean has all the files computerized, but changes her tune when he swiftly downloads information which helps them identify and locate a suicidal teenager.

Amy, Maxine and Lauren have trouble adjusting to their new living arrangements; Vincent returns for a visit to smooth over the waters between his mother and sister and persuade them to live together again; after Lauren tearfully calls Michael about the move, he suggests to Amy that Lauren come to live with him; Amy presides over a custody dispute involving a father who refuses to take a paternity test; Donna dates one of Amy's law school classmates; Amy ends her relationship with Barry.

Amy's discovers that the man the police have in custody may not be her stalker after all; Maxine refuses to give up on a client who may be the victim of police brutality; after Bruce denies having romantic feelings for Amy and they agree that confusion and alcohol led to their embrace, they decide to be friends who don't kiss; Kyle applies for a residency and is confronted by his sponsor for not working his program; a persistent attorney paves the way for Bruce to regain his court position; Amy must decide if a retarded teenager is competent to make her own reproductive choices.

Amy, Bruce, Lauren, Sean and Maxine rally around Eric as he goes on trial before an eccentric but wise judge; Maxine takes issue with Eric on a question of ethics about his testimony which colors her reaction to his verdict; after Zola breaks up with her boyfriend, she unsuccessfully resists Bruce's efforts to woo her; Kyle is faced with a medical and ethical dilemma when his patient's routine problem takes an inexplicable and tragic turn; Eric tells Maxine about a new person in his life; Heather and Kyle grow closer.