The Trials of Rosie O'Neill

Rosie O'Neill used to be a rich Beverly Hills lawyer, but following a messy divorce, has decided to dedicate her life to becoming a public defender. The decision is met with by scorn from her mother who thinks she's to good for this work & contempt from her officemate Hank, who thinks she doesn't care. Meanwhile Rosie struggles with helping her client, who is on trial for murdering her baby.

Rosie struggles with her toughest case yet. She is defending a known rapist, who delights in confessing to his various crimes, including this one, now she must come to terms with if helping him is morally right or not. This becomes even tougher on her when she finds that the police's key piece of evidence was planted at the scene, which means he's going to walk away a free man.

Rosie has a streak of bad luck after a client's mother places a curse on her. Meanwhile she fights a difficult case when a young father to be is charged with vehicular manslaughter after he hit a man who he claims was laying in the street. To make matters worse, Rosie finds herself unable to finalize her divorce to her Ex Husband & keeps coming up with reasons not to sign.

Rosie struggles with defending a client that the Prosecutor is trying to railroad, based on the color of his skin. Meanwhile she also has a difficult time with her feelings towards her new relationship, as her first wedding anniversary since the divorce is upon her. The more her mother & sister try to help, the more hopeless she feels.

Rosie struggles to defend young man accused of defacing a jewish cemetery & attacking an elderly night watchman. She learns of Ben's struggles with Antisemitism & opines on the plight of the Jewish people. Meanwhile Doreen is at her breaking point with her new baby & Hank rebels against a new policy that bans all personal or political items from the office.

Rosie begins to exam her own prejudices as she defends a client who mercy killed his AIDS infected lover. Her client likewise suffers from AIDS & blames himself for giving it to his lover, so he does little to help his case believing he deserves this. Meanwhile Rosie confronts her ex's lover (Helen Hunt) which causes her to contemplate what caused her marriage to fail.