Family Law

After catching Frank in a hotel elevator with another woman, Abby has no idea what to believe about her marriage; so instead, she flings herself into finding the truth for her client, Norma Choi. Norma’s husband Bert, an aspiring inventor, drowned and left Norma buried under a mountain of secret debt. But Norma thinks she’s seen Bert on the Internet, very much alive. Abby tracks down Bert and finds him living on a pot farm with a new partner and a new identity. Abby convinces Norma to sue Bert for intentional infliction of emotional harm, which proves difficult because Bert claims to have no memory about his previous life with Norma, or of faking his death. Daniel, meanwhile, is excited to start his first week as partner and Lucy crashes at Joanne’s as she mourns her breakup with Maggie. Harry tries to broker peace between his children and his girlfriend Crystal Steele by luring them to a family dinner under false pretences.

Abby and Daniel represent Sofia’s friend, Chloe, whose grandfather is denying her access to HRT. Abby and Daniel fight to have Chloe declared a mature minor, with the power to make her own medical decisions. But with Candice Birch as opposing counsel—and Harry sharing bits of the case with Crystal Steele during their "pillow talk"—the case explodes into a firestorm, complete with "family values" protesters picketing Chloe’s school and outing her to her classmates. Meanwhile, Frank faces Sofia’s teenage wrath after her discovery of his affair… and a smug Abby does little to heal that wound. A rift forms between Daniel and Lucy when he finds out about her affair. Daniel’s attempts to modernize the firm don’t go over well with an entrenched Harry. And Harry makes a difficult decision when he realizes he cannot keep his professional life separate from his girlfriend’s politics.

Abby is outraged that Daniel is allowing their client Sabine to get shafted in her divorce settlement with her husband Efren. Efren believes the one-sided deal is fair because of Sabine’s involvement with L.I.F.T., a self-improvement fitness group that—according to him—is a cult. Abby’s indignation fires up Sabine, who blows the negotiation to smithereens. Annoyed by Abby’s interference, Daniel tasks her with investigating L.I.F.T. to see if the husband’s cult accusations have merit. At the fitness group, Abby meets the charismatic leader who changed Sabine’s life, and nearly joins the group herself before discovering that L.I.F.T. really is a cult. Daniel, meanwhile, struggles to prove his value as a partner when the firm’s big class-action suit hits a snag. Cecil works up the courage to ask Nina a very important question. And after a disastrous attempt at couples’ therapy with Frank, Abby wonders if their marriage is worth salvaging, or if it’s holding her back.

Abby and Daniel represent Karolinka, an Eastern Bloc mail-order bride whose husband, Jim, wants to annul their marriage and have her deported. Jim claims Karolinka pretended to fall in love with him in order to immigrate to Canada. Karolinka claims Jim lied about being a "modern man", when really he’s a sexist bully who expects her to be a "housekeeper with benefits." Meanwhile, Nico and Sofia take the news of their parents’ impending divorce hard. Daniel’s date with another woman who’s perfect on paper is a perfect failure—until a run-in with free-spirited chef Martina salvages the night. Lucy’s hopes for a reconciliation with Maggie are dashed when she runs into Maggie’s new "friend".

Harry forces Abby to join him in representing Phaedra, a recent widow, in an estate dispute. Her late husband’s daughter, Esme, wants to cut her out of his will. When Abby, whose divorce is getting messier by the minute, discovers that Phaedra is a professional escort who was seeing her boyfriend “in a professional capacity” when his previous wife was still alive, she can’t help but harshly judge her. But the more Abby learns about the case, the more she learns to push aside her own prejudices (and those of the opposing counsel) to show the court that Phaedra deserves her portion of her late husband’s estate. Meanwhile, Daniel’s insinuations that Harry is behind the times—published in a feature magazine article, no less—lead to increasing tension between father and son. And Sofia and Nico, upset about the divorce, act out big-time —leading to a harrowing night for Abby, and bitter retaliation from Frank.

With no access to her kids, and the child custody evaluation Frank ordered looming over her, Abby throws herself into her work. Their newest client is Jessie, the primary parent of a neurodiverse teenager. Jessie claims her ex-husband is harassing her. He hacked into her email and told all her contacts she had gonorrhoea, posted a BDSM ad with her face and contact information, and even slashed her tires so she’d be late picking up her son. Jessie’s at the end of her rope. But Jessie’s ex insists he’s innocent of all of it — and accuses Jessie of doing it to herself to discredit him. Abby and Daniel are forced to ask: could Jessie be doing these things herself to stay in control of her son’s life? Meanwhile, Daniel is smitten with an older woman, until he discovers she’s a former… acquaintance of Harry’s. And sparks fly when Jessie’s case throws Abby into the path of Aidan, a handsome – and younger – firefighter.