Judging Amy

Amy Madison Gray struggles to adjust to the new circumstances in her life as she separates from her husband and becomes a single mother to her young daughter, Lauren; moves from Manhattan to Hartford, CT to live with her opinionated mother Maxine, a retired social worker; and starts a new career as a superior court judge in family court. The first case on her docket, the placement of a child abandoned by a drug addicted mother, introduces her to the shortcomings and political realities of the juvenile justice system.

Sitting in for a friend whos undergoing chemotherapy, Amy presides over her first jury trial and clashes with a former law school classmate who represents the parents of a murdered girl who are suing the parents of her teenaged killer; Maxine shops for a new car for the first time in her life; Vincent feels that Maxine doesnt take his writing seriously after she interrupts his work to ask him to babysit the six rambunctious first graders attending Laurens sleepover party.

A death threat, coupled with Maxines disapproval, puts a crimp in Amys blossoming relationship with Tracy; Vincent begins to feel like hes Chriss pet project; Maxine rekindles an old friendship; Amy officiates at Donnas wedding to a convict; Maxine helps a second generation foster teenager keep her infant son out of the system.

Maxine fights to keep a deaf boy in the care of his teenage brother after they are orphaned; Bruce disagrees with Amys decision in an interracial adoption case; Vincent gets a job teaching writing; Donna seeks Amys assistance in getting a conjugal visit with Oscar; Vincent learns something surprising about his father.

Amy juggles preparing Thanksgiving dinner, being on call, and coping with a surprise announcement from Michael; Gillian asks Maxine for help in financing another in-vitro procedure; Amy presides over an adoption in which the biological father shows up at the last minute to claim his child; Hillary tries to settle the score with Vincent during a Thanksgiving party at Alans; Amy sentences two boys convicted of animal cruelty.

Amy takes it personally when Stuart appeals her decision to overturn the jurys verdict; Maxine arrives at a creative solution in placing an extremely gifted teenager who chronically runs away from his foster placements; Donna becomes Vincents new roommate; Amy must decide whether to remove a child from the care of a mother suspected of suffering from Munchausen by Proxy syndrome; after her verdict is upheld, Stuart asks Amy out on a date, and she royally disses him as she turns him down flat.

Michaels insistence upon joint custody of Lauren after Amy requests an increase in child support payments dooms the divorce mediation process, and they each retain high-powered and aggressive attorneys; Maxine wants nothing to do with any celebration of her 60th birthday; Amy must decide whether a college senior should be charged as an adult for a fatal hit and run accident that occured when he was fifteen; Michaels attempt to win Vincent over to his side in the custody battle ends badly; Amy hears a fathers petition which contests the divorce agreement requiring him to pay for his daughters college education; Maxine deals with combative divorced parents who cant seem to manage a peaceful exchange of their three small children.

Amy is assigned to a Judicial Conduct Commission panel which will decide the fate of a judge accused of demanding sexual favors from a prostitute in exchange for a reduced sentence; Maxine faces a culture clash when she tries to help a Yemeni teenager who was stabbed after being accused of dishonoring her family; Amy presides over the case of a woman who fears that her ex-husband may have abducted their children; Vincents book is published and reviewed by The New York Times; Evie moves in temporarily with Maxine and Amy, and proves to be quite a handful; Michaels parents come to visit Lauren, and rebuff Amys attempts to discuss the divorce.

Amy must decide if a brain-injured woman is fit to be a mother; Maxine discovers that a teenaged client is being abused by his therapist; Leisha meets Amy, and faces her ire for piercing Laurens ears without permission; Vincent and Maxine clash over his journalism career; Amy faces a class of insufferable law students when shes asked to teach a seminar at Yale; Donna takes modeling herself after Amy a bit too far when she begins to show up for work dressed and coiffed exactly like her mentor; its all bark and no bite when Amy decides to dismiss the case of a drug dealer sniffed out by a four-legged member of the neighborhood watch.

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 Peters 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 abductors 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 Maxines 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

Maxine gets a new supervisor at D.C.F.; Donna becomes stressed when Oscars attorneys petition to have his conviction reversed; Amy and Maxine are at odds over having Maxines terminally ill client testify in a case that Amy is hearing; Vincent counsels Donna against telling Oscar about her attraction to other men, and reassures her that her feelings are normal.

Vincent is injured in an explosion when he attempts to dissuade an old friend threatening to blow up the court house after he loses custody of his sons in Amys court; Charles accuses Maxine of being a golddigger; Donna discovers that shes pregnant; after Ian files a complaint against Amy and Bruce, alleging that they have an improper relationship, Bruce transfers to another courtroom for the duration of the investigation; Maxines efforts to reunite a mother with her children are sabotaged by her client.

Maxine goes overboard in mothering Vincent after hes released from the hospital and moves back into her house to recuperate; Amy sentences a teenager accused of bullying small children; Donna uncovers incriminating information about Ian; Laurens soccer coach turns out to be an old friend of Amys; after the police reach a dead end in a child molestation accusation, Maxine stumbles upon the ammunition needed to reopen the case; Lauren lays a guilt trip on Amy about her being a work-outside-the-home mother; Amy demands a written apology after the investigation about her relationship with Bruce is dropped for insufficient evidence; when Gillian and Amy disagree about babysitters, Peter disagrees with his wifes plans to quit her job; after presiding over the case of a teenager whose infant son died after she left him on the steps of a church, Amy goes ballistic when a father at one of the soccer games becomes verbally abusive; Amy gets Bruce transferred back to her court, and is shocke

Amy contends with a high profile attorney who attempts to bully her during a paternity case; Maxine struggles over mending fences with a neighbor; Vincents near-death experience gives him a sense of fearlessness that gets him into trouble with Len; Peter questions his ability to raise a biracial child after he ignores a collegues racist remarks; Maxine continues her investigation into sexual abuse at a preschool; Amy and Lolly take a self-defense course together.

Amy is as shocked as Lauren is pleased to learn of Michael and Leishas impending wedding; sensing that Maxine has reservations about their relationship, Jared suggests that they take some time away from each other in order to gain a little perspective; Vincent is attracted to a producer he meets when hes invited to read his short stories on the radio; Amy must decide if an alcoholic mother responsible for the death of her daughter has recovered enough to regain custody of her son and retain custody of her unborn child; Maxine is distressed when the states attorney declines to file charges in the Roseland case; Bruce unhappily assents when Mia suggests that Rebecca spend more time with her in New York; Amy hears the case of a divorcing couple fighting over frequent flyer miles.

When Donnas birthing center burns down the night before she goes into labor, the Grays offer the use of their house for her babys water birth; the family becomes concerned at Maxines curiously dispassionate response to the news of Socratess death; Amy is upset when Vincent decides to spend Christmas alone with Carole rather than with the family; as she begins to suffer from burnout on the job, Maxine shifts some of her caseload onto her colleagues and finally takes Amys advice to see a therapist; Amy gives four girls who filed a false molestation complaint against their teacher a taste of their own medicine when she has them taken into custody.

Evie walks back into Neds life just as Peter and Gillian are set to adopt him; Maxine deals with a young girl who wants to be adopted before her 18th birthday, and a 12-year-old boy who refuses to be adopted because he believes his birth mother will come back one day.

Amy finds herself fending off Nicks advances and agonizes over whether she should tell Lolly; Maxine assists a detective in tracking down an undocumented Cambodian boys parents; Amy rules on a case involving a teenager who refuses to attend school after the principal discontinues the gay pride club on campus.

Peter and Gillian lose custody of Ned to Evie; Peter tries to drown his grief in alcohol and is arrested for drunk driving; Gillian fixates on Peters drinking to avoid dealing with her loss; Amy must rule on the future of an unborn baby after learning that the mother is under investigation for the disappearance of her first child; Maxine and Sadie investigate the strange case of a woman who thinks shes a holly bush; Vincent and Carol attend her parents 30th wedding anniversary party; Bruce loses his cool when he mediates a dispute over a teenagers plastic surgery.

Amy must decide whether to terminate the parental rights of a couple convicted of child abuse; Maxines disrespect rubs a building inspector the wrong way, endangering the scheduled opening for Sanctuary House and thus the federal funds needed for its operation; Amy grapples with her jealousy over Laurens attachment to Katie; Donna decides to divorce Oscar; Bruce and his sister Winnie quarrel over where their mother should live.

Maxine contemplates ending her relationship with Jared after meeting his son again, while Amy oversees a case involving a mother who wants to deny visitation rights to her daughters grandparents; Vincents decision to quit his job to write a novel unsettles Carole.

Felled by the flu, Amy collapses in court, but not before presiding over a custody hearing for a cow; long-buried feelings erupt between Gillian and Peter when Evie offers to return Ned; Amys caseload has more of an effect on her temporary replacement than he expected; after Sean grounds her to desk duty for taking wannabee gangbangers on an unauthorized field trip to the local I.C.U. which draws outcries from their parents, Maxine decides not to ask him for a few days off to accompany Jared on a business trip to China; Carole accepts a job offer in San Francisco and asks Vincent to come with her; Sean supports Maxine when Jareds plane is reported missing; the Gray family rejoices when both Ned and Jared are returned to them safely.

Maxine reunites a couple with their kidnapped baby; Vincent is upset when Carole usurps his prerogative to tell his family about their move in his own way and time by blurting out the news over family dinner, while Amy is downright angry at her brothers decision; when she learns that hes been granted an appeal, Donna cant face serving Oscar with divorce papers herself; Amy watches helplessly as a mother whose custody petition she denied takes drastic measures to protest Amys decision.

Vincent and Amy are frantic when Maxine disappears; Carole ignores a lump on her breast; Amy suspects a lawyer of exploiting starving children and also hears the case of two kids who attack a Live the Lord club and try to excuse it by saying that the club should not be meeting on school grounds.

Amy must rule on the fate of conjoined twins; Jared proposes to Maxine before taking a job in China; Carole tries to push Vincent away after she learns the lump on her breast is malignant.

Amy must decide whether to modify a custody agreement and allow a woman to take her daughter to Paris for two years against the wishes of the girls father; back to work at the DCF, Maxine takes on the case of ""Bubble Man"", a homeless man who is about to be arrested for blowing bubbles in the park without a permit, and shows Robert some tricks of the trade to save an abused boy; Bruce works with a mother who is about to lose custody of her son for not meeting the conditions of his probation because she is in denial about the emotional toll her sons disability has taken on her; Maxine brokers a peace settlement and gets Amy and Vincent speaking again by suggesting that Amy review Vincents contract with the studio that has optioned his novel; Caroles condition worsens unexpectedly, and Vincent leaves hurriedly, amid many tears and in possession of the familys good luck totem, the ""surfing monkey"".

Donna stumbles as she subs for Bruce as Amys C.S.O. while he attempts to convince the probation officer of a teenager that Amy assigned to a diversionary program to keep the boy out of prison after a fight with members of his former gang; Maxines nephew Kyle comes back into the family fold, much to Amys displeasure; Amy must decide whether to commit a young boy who stole a rifle and slaughtered a yak as part of a coming-of-age ritual to a locked psychiatric facility, or turn him over to the sentencing circle of his Native American tribe; Kyles medical knowledge helps Maxine solve the mystery of why five boys from an exemplary foster home have severe abrasions on their arms.

Lauren asks if ""cheating"" was the reason her parents divorced; Bruce warns Amy that shes being set up after Judge Keeler asks to observe her in court; Maxine enlists Kyles 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 stepmothers decision to keep his comatose father on life support.

After her brother Richard arrives in town looking for his son, Maxine initially refuses to put him in touch with Kyle, but later relents; in the process of helping Donna with her estate planning, Peter and Gillian agree to become Ariadnes guardian should something happen to Donna; as Maxine quarrels with Richard about the event that caused them not to speak for twelve years, it becomes apparent that Maxine blames her brother for Edwards early death; Bruce and Andrea hit it off during a play date for their daughters, and later go out on a date; Kyle refuses his fathers offer to bail him out of his troubles; Maxine works to help a father regain visitation rights to his teenaged son; Kyle and Amy continue their discussion about the events that caused a rift in their relationship and find that they share responsibility and guilt for the events of that night; a young surrogate mother pregnant with twins who has no interest in keeping the babies comes before Amy in the middle of a custody

Barry invites Amy to a business dinner, where her outspokenness almost gets the better of her and the budding relationship with Barry; with Kyles help, Maxine searches the streets for a runaway gay teen, and she later agrees to let him stay at her house until she finds him another foster home placement; Amy must decide if a teenager who wrote a play about killing bullies, joked about school shootings, and considers the Holocaust a warning to the ruling classes, presents a threat to society; Maxines already strained patience with the way Brian is running Teen Harbor snaps when she witnesses a drug deal there, and she orders it closed, incurring Kyles wrath; as Bruce prepares a recommendation for Amy on whether a woman whose alcoholism caused her to lose custody of her children should be reunited with them, he isnt entirely convinced that she has stopped drinking and decides to do a little surveillance, bringing along Andrea to keep him company.

Amy presides over a sad custody dispute in which neither parent wants a troubled teenager; Bruce sets down some ground rules with Andrea about their relationship; Amy is frustrated, bewildered, and angry when Barry fails to get in touch with her after their last date; Maxine and Kyle use their respective charms to find the administrator and the funding that will enable them to reopen Teen Harbor; Gillians attempt to interest her painting teacher in Amy backfires, causing Peter to resort to Neanderthal behavior; Amy battles with Michael over the scope and expense of the upcoming birthday party hes hosting for Lauren.

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, Maxines 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.

Maxine is saddened when Jared fails to call her upon his return from China, so Sean arranges a casino night fund raiser to cheer her up; a born-again teenager charges her mother with parental neglect for working as a stripper, and Amy must decide whether to place the girl in foster care; Donna confronts Kyle after she finds a syringe and morphine in his room drawers and is relieved to hear that he keeps it as a reminder that he is capable of making the choice to stay clean every day; after his daughter tells him about her ill-timed encounter with Bruce, David Solomon files a complaint against Andrea, who immediately ends her relationship with Bruce for fear of losing custody; responding to a message from Bruce attempting to explain the situation, Solomon shows up at the courthouse and threatens, taunts and insults Bruce, who is arrested and jailed after he knocks Solomon to the ground with a punch.

Amy turns into a henpecking daughter upon Maxines return from the hospital, forcing her mother to suffer through a healthier diet and a walking group for seniors; after Maxine questions the wisdom of living with Amy, they agree it would be best for Amy to move out; Amys worried that Bruce is planning to enter a guilty plea on his assault charge; Kyle is forced to tell a runaway that shes dying; Amy hears the case of a high school student who hides her baby in a storage room during class.

Although Amy tries to make the best of it, she and Lauren are still miserable in their small apartment; unable to avoid running into Jared and his date at the diner while looking and feeling her worst, Maxine gives him the cold shoulder, but Jared remains undeterred in his affection for her and finally gets her to accept an engagement ring; Michael sues for full legal custody of Lauren; just as Amy is prepared to ask her mother if she can move back in, she discovers that Maxine has puts her house up for sale; Bruce pleads no contest on his assault charge and receives a suspended sentence; Amy hears a case of a woman who locked her children in the trunk of her car because she had no one to care for them while she was at work; Maxine ends her medical leave after her dentist asks her to investigate the possible abuse of a teenaged patient; Bruce is fired and the dreaded Ian Jankowski is promoted to C.S.O. and assigned to Amys courtroom.

Amys 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 dont 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 presides over the custody hearing of a boy whose mother died in the collapse of the World Trade Center; an old friend offers Kyle a job with a pharmaceutical company, and Maxine counteroffers with the job of heading the Center; Amy relandscapes her new home and accidently throws out Ethel, the antique heirloom rosebush Maxines grandmother brought over from Ireland in 1889; after initially spurning her offer, Bruce agrees to speak at Zolas press conference for convicted felons; and Maxine helps Sean over some rough spots as Erics foster father.

Amy must decide if a student raped his teacher or was seduced by her; Kyle is unhappy about his nonmedical duties at St. Michaels; Maxine tries to locate the mother of an abandoned newborn; after Jason menaces Amy while shes driving Lauren and Eric home, Bruce suggests getting a restraining order; fearing the worst about her health, Gillian gets the diagnosis shes dreamed of for years.

Amys ruling in the case of a teenager who called in a bomb scare to avoid a test is complicated by the arrival of an I.N.S. agent whos ready to deport the boy to Afghanistan, and almost certain death, if hes found guilty; Eric saves Lauren from being kidnapped by Jason; Gillians raging hormones leave Peter exhausted as she goes into overdrive about the plans for Maxines wedding; Kimberly blackmails Sean into getting her job back in exchange for helping Maxine find an endangered teenager whos aged out of the system; Kyle defies hospital protocol to give a dying woman her last wish; Eric ends Jasons stalking with tragic finality.

Amy must decide if a little girl in the middle of a bitter custody dispute is being molested by her father; doing research for a paper, Donna shadows Maxine during a day in which she deals with the neglected children of a severely depressed mother who refuses treatment; Kyle receives an unwelcome visit from his mother and sister; after employing a private investigator to follow Amy for over a year, Michael sues for full custody of Lauren; the decorator that Amy hires to redo the kitchen disparages Maxines taste.

After Amy accidently sets on fire the homework that Lauren has spent hours painstakingly hand-calligraphing, she agrees to make it up to her by spending the weekend role-playing at an 18th century inn and inviting Maxine to join them. The going is rougher than she anticipated when they are assigned the roles of kitchen servants. Over a late night fireside heart-to-heart chat, Maxine and Amy share their dislike of change and inability to reconcile conflicting emotions about their place in the world. Bruce pursues Zola after meeting, and being completely unimpressed by, her boyfriend. Kyle treats a 14 year old girl who delivered a baby in a high school bathroom, and cannot get through to the girls mother, who is unwilling to accept her responsibilites as a parent. Gillian gets an unexpected job offer after spending a long day waiting to interview a new pediatrician. Amy must revoke a custody order after a father reverts to his former abusive ways.

Maxine and Sean battle a sleazy attorney with a penchant for blackmail when they attempt to remove a child from her negligent parents; Amy presides over the case of a deadbeat dad who is willing to go to extreme measures to avoid paying child support when he learns that his sons paternity may be at issue; Maxine is ""filled with existential dread"" at the prospect of the wedding ceremony Gillian is planning for her; Kyle experiences a sleepless night discovering why the parents of a handicapped man who appears to be healthy insist that he be hospitalized overnight.

Stuart Collins returns from Sri Lanka reincarnated as a criminal defense attorney eager to take on Erics case and renew his romance with Amy; Peter and Gillian hear unsettling news about the potential health of their unborn child; Maxine and Sean work together to create the best possible placement for a young Sudanese refugee; a father petitions Amy for legal custody of his 14 year old daughter after her mother allows her to drop out of school and pursue a full-time career as a pop star with an over-sexualized and age-inappropriate image.

Maxine unwittingly provides Amy with the information she needs to decide whether promoters are responsible for the death of a teenager who died from an ecstasy overdose during one of their raves; Maxine and Sean join forces to persuade a couple to take back their former foster child after shes released from work camp; Amy and Maxine disagree about Amys being overprotective of Lauren; Sean lets Maxine know hes angry about her judgemental attitude toward Eric; after conferring with Martin, Kyle decides to pursue a romance with Heather; Kyle goes off the wagon when he and Heather throw a party to celebrate their successful evaluations; after Lily sees them kissing at the party, she decides not to reveal that a random drug test is being conducted the next day, and Heather is fired; Bruce distances himself from Amy in an effort to convince Zola that theres nothing going on between them.

Stu convinces a reluctant Amy to go on an overnight camping trip which ends up bringing them closer together; after planning to wed Jared secretly on the weekend, Maxine is devastated when he has a sudden, fatal heart attack in China and lashes out in her grief to everyone around her, including a rebellious teenaged client; tensions run high in the Gray household when Maxine refuses to allow anyone to comfort her, and Peter and Charles bicker over the funeral arrangements as a way of handling their sorrow; Maxine gathers family and friends at the diner for a moving memorial service.

On ""Take Your Daughter to Work Day"", Lauren learns how lucky she is when she spends the afternoon with Maxine, and Rebecca becomes seriously injured after she falls during a seizure; Kyle continues to drink; Stu reassures Amy that shes a permanent part of his life after she fails to make a fabulous first impression during lunch with his opinionated mother; Bruce struggles to get a boy discharged from probation; after begging Lily to rehire Heather, Kyle is shocked when she refuses to return; Heather and Zola let the men in their lives know that theyve got romance on their minds.

When Amy is transferred to criminal court, Bruce stays behind in juvenile court, and she inherits Spencer, an insolent clerk; Lauren has an extremely unhappy first day at junior high, but things brighten up on day two when, much to her mothers dismay, she finds a boyfriend who is a year older; after accepting Stuarts proposal, Amy begins to have nightmares about the wedding; recently unemployed as a result of budget cuts, Donna helps Peter care for his sons while Gillian languishes in a coma; Ellen, D.C.F.s newest employee, uses her experience as a former foster child to help Maxine deal with a teenager whos run away from her foster home; fed up with his impudence and disloyalty, Amy fires Spencer and hires Donna, whos recently graduated from law school; Amys predecessor in the criminal division threatens her with retribution after she considers overturning his decision to suppress evidence in a capital murder case; Gillian finally emerges from her coma.

Maxine criticizes Amys ruling that an emotionally-fragile girl is competent to serve as a witness in her mothers murder trial. Kyle, who doesnt know how he himself made it safely home after a night of heavy drinking, has to give medical treatment to a drunken driver who killed one of his hospital co-workers on the road. Lauren receives a poor grade in math and blames it on the teacher.

Still grieving over the loss of Jared, Maxine finds it difficult to listen to Amy and Stu plan their wedding; Bruce is less than thrilled working for Judge Bell; Gillian is sad and irritable that shes having difficulty bonding to Walt, and cant seem to talk to Peter about whats troubling her; Kyle feels betrayed when Lily makes her decision about the new attending physician; Amy teaches Lauren and her friends a harsh lesson about popularity, friendship, and the cruelty of cliques; after Zola seeks Amys help in reaching out to Bruce, he confesses that her role in the Jason Darby case may have put an end to their relationship; Kyle is put in legal jeopardy when he saves the life of a man injured in a bar fight; Maxine overcomes her initial skepticism about the latest claims coming from a young boy known for filing false complaints against the men in his mothers life, and discovers that this latest accusation may have merit, much to the dismay of the boys mother, who doesnt wa

Forced to substitute for an ailing colleague just two days before her wedding, Amy presides over a felony murder case involving a 14 year old boy and makes a controversial decision to overturn the jurys verdict; Stus groomsmen are less than thrilled when they realize that theyll be wearing kilts instead of tuxes at the wedding; Kyle hatches a plan to surprise the rest of the family with Vincents presence at the wedding, and gets a surprise himself when he walks in on Vincent and Heather making out; Amy forgets to get a sub as the judge on call, and ends up signing one warrant after another for David; Maxines search for an apartment goes poorly, and the attempts of a co-worker and Stus mother to be helpful only make things worse; Amys pre-wedding jitters turn into a full scale panic attack as the ceremony begins; realizing that she doesnt want to marry Stu, she calls the wedding off; later that evening, Vincent tells Amy that Carole has left him for her oncologist.

Maxine confronts the D.C.F. commissioner over his budget cuts when she discovers that young girls in the foster care system are being moved from group homes into a locked psychiatric facility to save money that is evidently being redirected towards decoratating the commissioners office; when Todd is about to be fired for bucking hospital protocol in an effort to save a young boys hand, Kyle stands up for him despite their ongoing conflicts; after an Amish teenager becomes pregnant during rumspringa and decides to return to her community with her daughter, the childs father countersues for sole custody, and Amy must make the incredibly difficult choice between having the mother be shunned by her family and the father never seeing his child again; fearing that Maxine is spinning so out of control that his job is in jeopardy, Sean cuts back her hours and strongly urges her to see a therapist; concerned about the effect that peer pressure at her public school is having on Lauren, Amy go

The rift between Peter and Gillian widens at Walts christening; Maxine overcomes her resistance and resumes therapy; when a tree thats been neglected crashes through Amys kitchen window, she mistakenly calls in a landscape designer who reveals a keen insight into the state of both Maxines garden and her soul; a young girl appears in Amys court charged with reckless endangerment for running a pro-anorexia web site; Maxine is disturbed when the frustrated mother of a boy with a chronic neurological disorder turns from conventional medical care to a dubious faith healer in an effort to help her son; Amy is mortified when an upheaval during her sushi dinner date with David ruins both the evening and Davids new and very expensive shoes.

Ignacio says it with flowers as he continues his gentle pursuit of Maxine; Heather begins to act erratically around Kyle, whos shocked when he discovers the reason; Lauren and Peter each find a new perspective on life during a trip to the mall, and when Amy expresses displeasure at the look of things look upon their return, her brother gives her an earful; Maxine is perplexed by a fathers reaction when she investigates a possible case of child abuse in a family with a history of violent behavior; a teenager tries to pull a fast one over on Amy in an effort to prevent his mother from gaining additional visitation time; Bruce puts his foot down when Amy once again attempts to cast him in the girlfriend role as she obsesses over her relationship with David.

Donna gets a little too invested in the future of Amys relationship, or lack thereof, with David; a teenager charged with larceny and criminal mischief for destroying a bike belonging to her brothers girlfriend unleashes a terrible family secret during a hearing in Amys courtroom; Rebecca lets the cat out of the bag when she reveals that the real reason Mia has asked Bruce to stay at his house for a few days is not that shes visiting her sick aunt nearby, but that shes bankrupt; Kyle has difficulty adjusting to the idea of becoming a father; Maxine investigates the home environment of some foster parents after discovering that they participate in costumed sexual fantasy role-playing conventions; Peter is less than thrilled at the blossoming romance between his mother and Ignacio; after some prodding, David finally gives Amy the kiss shes been anticipating, and confesses that hes still grieving deeply over the loss of his wife.

Kyle disregards Maxines advice at his own peril when he bends the rules for a new mother who wants to hold her newborn baby just once before shes returned to prison; when the tension and awkwardness between Amy and David as they keep bumping into each other in the court house becomes more than she can bear, Amy withdraws her consent to the breakup and they decide to reconcile; Matthew asks Gillian out on a date, and she nervously turns him down until she seeks out Donna for some single mother bonding and realizes what she really wants to do; Maxine asks Ignatio to family dinner, and is surprised when he shows up with a disapproving Isabel in tow; Kyle is wary when Todd offers a hand in friendship; Amy devises a creative way to allow a young mother to retain custody of her children as she struggles to earn a living hampered by idiotic provisions of the ""Welfare to Work"" program.

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Amy is dismayed when the courthouse cleaning lady tries to fix her up with her son amid gossip about Davids departure; Lauren pesters Amy to send her to rock star camp; political posturing makes life at D.C.F. more miserable than usual until Maxine comes up with an inspired solution to the problem and is able to reunite a mother with her sons; when Amy presides over a shoplifting case, she discovers that the case is rooted in the neglect of two children -- the plaintiff and the daughter of the plaintiffs famous defense attorney; David sends Amy a postcard from Houston; Kyle quits his job to reassess his future after he discovers that his father died never having pursued his true passion in life; Maxine has a little tiff with Ignacio over his qualms about Courtneys dating Sean because of their cultural differences, and Amy is surprised when Bruce agrees with Ignacio; Maxine grieves the loss of her brother, and is especially saddened when her sister-in-law asks that she not attend th

Unwilling to let a poor client go to extremes to get prompt medical attention for her daughter, Maxine finds a way to get D.C.F. to cover the surgery the girl needs; David declares his love for Amy; Maxine gets shocking news about Ignacio and breaks off their relationship; Amy tragically miscalculates a teenagers propensity for violence; increasingly jealous over Peters involvement with Shelby, Gillian confronts him about the future of their marriage, and doesnt like the response she gets; with the help of Buck and a little gunfire, Kyle finally finds a career path he can get excited about; the Grays receive a very unexpected, and very welcome, visitor.

Vincents struggles with his latest novel leads him into blowing off his agent, who responds by dropping Vincent and demanding the return of the advance that Vincents already spent; Maxine receives another award, and uses her acceptance speech to talk about the young boy lost in the system that she and Sean cant seem to locate; Amys dealings with two troubled teenage girls and their mothers in Accountability court inspires her to change her focus when she returns to Juvenile Court; Maxine tries to avoid removing the children of a overburdened single mother working to overcome anger and abuse issues; David finally feels that hes put his wifes death behind him and can now pursue a relationship with Amy; Ignacio lets Maxine know that hes ready to do whatever it takes to have a future with her; Amy fires Donna to propel her into practicing law; Kyle decides to accompany Heather to Minnesota and take care of their son while shes in rehab.

Amy has difficulty dealing with Laurens need for privacy; blinded by Anthony Birds loss, Maxine lies to Sean and makes all the wrong choices in dealing with a teenaged boy whos holed up in a hotel room after discovering that he was kidnapped by his mother as a child; Amy must determine if aggravated sexual assault occurred between two teenagers attending a sex party, but cant seem to leave the case in the courtroom when she encounters Lauren at home; Gillian takes the news of their financial difficulties well, and offers Peter her support; Vincent confesses to Gillian that hes no longer working on his book; Amy resists Davids attempts to redefine their relationship.

Back at work from her suspension, Maxine is becoming unhinged as she desperately searches for Anthony Byrd; Amy spends a tense day awaiting the results of a breast biopsy; Donnas summation reveals how closely she identifies with the teenage client she represents in Amys court; Peter and Gillian search for a school for Ned; Amy arrives home to find an unconscious Maxine on the kitchen floor.

Maxine resists Gillians home grown cardiac rehabilitation program; Lauren tells Amy that she wants to live with Michael; when Vincent comes to Sean looking for work, Sean refers him to Crystal Turner, who runs a outreach program for homeless teenagers; David quits his job and takes off for the Caribbean on his sailboat; Amy must decide whether a depressed woman with multiple sclerosis is well enough to care for her ten year old son; Vincent offers to tutor a homeless teenager studying for his G.E.D., but when he tries to get the boy off the street and into a group home, the boy disappears.

Amy learns that she is pregnant with Davids baby after taking a home pregnancy test, resulting in David returning from his sailing trip to discuss with Amy their future together and what they mean to each other; Maxines first case back since her heart-attack involves a seventeen year old single father; Amy presides over a case involving a boy who stabs his teacher; Vincent and Crystal take a ten year old prostitute to the hospital after being beaten up by her pimp.

Unaware that he is hiding his true feelings and pretending to be happy for her, Amy is annoyed by Bruces casual response to news of her engagement. Amy is also annoyed that her relationship with Bruce has evolved to the point where he knows all of her idiosyncrasies, including, he asserts, how shell rule in the heartrending case of a teenage girl with epilepsy whose parents disagree about whether or not she should have risky brain surgery that may stop her seizures; Elsewhere, Maxine has issues with an affluent, mostly white prep school after a student there is severely beaten; a publisher takes an interest in Vincents new book; Lauren lashes out at Amy for being pregnant.

Amy finds it rather difficult to follow her moms advice and embrace her 40th birthday as a milestone. Donna is in Amys court representing a 13-year-old girl who accidentally kills her friend while they are out on a joyride but shows no remorse for her death. Maxine tries to determine whether two brothers are better off without the presence of their father, an ex-con, in their lives. Amy miscarries on her 40th birthday. Amy drowns her sorrows at a bar located on the beach, where she meets a stranger who gives her the perspective she needs during her difficult time.

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Maxine and Patricia discuss their feelings about dating. Patricia falls for Ignacio when they bump into him at a restaurant. Maxine insists she is only friends with Ignacio, but her behavior suggests otherwise. Maxine investigates a college professor accused of abusing his wife. Maxine learns that the professor abused his first wife; When Maxine informs the current wife about his past, she finally admits that he was abusing her also and has him arrested. Amy hears a case in which a teenage boy is accused of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest. During trial, it is revealed that the boy was the victim of a cops ""Raid and Run"" scheme. Lauren is suspended from school for vandalism after her and her friends destroy several trays of meat. Amy learns that Lauren and her friends are part of a group called ""straight edge."" At the end of the episode, Amy has a showdown with Lauren about her recent behavior. Vincent gets a book deal based on his experience teaching at the juve

Amy says her final goodbyes to Graciela. Maxine realizes that she made a mistake in pushing Ignacio away and tries to reach out to him but Ignacio rebuffs her because he doesnt want to be her yo-yo, jerked around on Maxines whims. Bruce is still absent on Amys last day in the courtroom. Holbrook tries to raise awareness about the bill before Congress that will effectively kill the juvenille justice system. Donna is amazed that Amy refuses to support the cause and brings several of the kids whose lives Amy has changed during her time on the bench in an effort to change her mind. Amy, frustrated by her limitations as a judge, runs into Marty Levine, who again tries to convince her to give the speech in Washington and run for Senate. Amy runs the idea by Lauren who at first refuses to give a straight answer but later supports her mom when Maxine attacks the decision. That same night, Maxine must rush to save a young girl from being pimped out by her prostitute mother. Amy receive