Immediately upon being hired to assist at Fallin & Fallin, former county prosecutor Claire Stasiak joins Nick in representing a police officer who shot a suspect. However, when the victim turns out to be his former dealer, Colin Bennett, Nick turns the case over to Claire and his dad. As he and Alvin are asked to keep some teenage clients in foster care, Probation Department head Paul Tibbets raises questions about the accuracy of Nick s community service hours. And as Lulu recovers, Nick offers to move in to help out once she s been released.


After a difficult meeting with their teenage clients, Nick and Alvin fight to keep them from being committed to a psychiatric hospital. Facing some difficult choices, Nick finds that Josh Bennett s history of violence and sexual abuse has made him hard to place, while Wendy Newburg says she would rather return to a sexually abusive stepfather than be committed again. Meanwhile, even though police officer Scott Davenport admits to the unprovoked shooting, Burton resists settling and asks the young cop to reexamine his story. And upon taking a closer look at his timesheets, Alvin suspects Nick of padding his probation report.


Though Anders Young aims to please in order to get the only available foster care bed, when forced to choose, Nick gives it to Wendy. However, after Alvin admits he drew straws to choose who should be kept in foster care, Nick s choice proves to be a mistake after Wendy runs away within hours of arriving at her new home. Prior to his deposition, Burton reminds Davenport of the consequences his family would face if he admitted guilt in the unprovoked shooting. So, after their heart to heart talk, the young cop claims he fired in self-defense. Finally, when Nick admits that he s been padding his hours on his probation reports, Alvin cuts a deal with Tibbets to account for the shortfall. And as Nick and Claire disagree over his dad s tactics, Lulu asks her mother to come and stay with her for awhile.

 

From ATV