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Episode: 4 Production #: 104 First Air Date: October 16, 2001 Writer: David Hollander Director: Charles Haid Guest Stars:
Dyan Kane as Jenny Sandro
Fan Rating: 10/10 (Average of all fan submitted ratings) Synopsis: Nick is taken off of the Hunter Reed case and assigned a case about a fifteen-year-old girl, April Santos, who claims to have been raped by her stepfather, a cop. Nick arranges for her maternal aunt to have guardianship, but Nick soon finds out that all is not what it appears to be and he must go to CLS and admit that he may have placed April in an even more dangerous environment than her home. And at Fallin & Assoc., John Clayton seeks the firm to reorganize his assets at his steel plant. Burton refuses, claiming that there is no money to be made, but Simon discovers that his father has a personal reason for refusing the business – Clayton Steel is the same plant that he worked at as a teenager alongside his father. Case Law: This episode deals with the placement of a teenager who accuses her stepfather of rape. In Pennsylvania, Child Protective Services may take a child into protective custody immediately when necessary to protect the child from serious injury or where there are reasonable grounds to believe that the child is in imminent danger and removal is necessary. A "shelter hearing" must take place in front of a judge within 72 hours. The Court may decide at that hearing to continue protective custody or return the child to his home. If at the hearing the court decides that protective custody shall be continued, the agency must file a dependency petition within 48 hours. An adjudicatory hearing must then take place within ten days (in reality, longer) to decide whether the child is "dependent". Once a child has been adjudicated dependent, there is a dispositional hearing to determine what will happen to the child. The child could remain at home under social services' supervision, placed with a relative caretaker, placed in foster care or a treatment facility. The court must then hold a hearing every six months to monitor the stability of the child and the family. In Nick's role as a corporate attorney, Nick advises John Clayton how to proceed with his bankrupt business, Clayton Steel.When a company is insolvent, that is it is unable to pay its debts, the company has a choice between filing a Chapter 7 or 11 bankruptcy. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy is a liquidation in which the bankruptcy trustee administers the sale of the company's assets and distributes the proceeds to creditors in a statutory order. A Chapter 11 filing means that the company, shareholders, bondholders and creditors propose a plan to the court to re-organize the company's debt for the purpose of making it solvent. If major creditors, like the Bank in this episode, believe that a Chapter 11 bankruptcy is worthless because the company's debt burden is too large they can force a Chapter 7.
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