Burden of Truth

- Season 1

(2018)

A mysterious illness affecting high school girls in her home town brings lawyer Joanna Hanley back to the place she left 17 years ago.

A fish out of water in a town that's as foreign as it is familiar, Joanna battles with questions over her family's hasty departure when she was a teenager and attempts to convince the locals that she has in fact switched sides.

Relying on her esteemed reputation as a partner at CTS, Joanna convinces a hydrologist to come to Millwood to test the soil. With reluctant permission from the local Mayor, Joanna and Billy narrow down their list of suspects to a handful of industrial sites in the community. After testing the soil and groundwater around town, they make the startling discovery that the field is the source of the toxin when they uncover barrels of sludge buried there. But someone would rather they stop digging and the pair get run off the road.

Joanna makes a decision that Billy is disappointed about. The girls who are ill are not getting better. Joanna's father makes a visit to Milltown and tries to persuade Joanna to return to the city. Then Joanna has a huge surprise that impacts the family's dynamics..

Anger over the claim against the mill pits the sick girls and their families against employees of the mill who worry that their jobs are on the line. When the local pastor's daughter becomes afflicted with the illness, he blames the girls themselves. Parents begin keeping their healthy kids home from school, so to quell the mounting hysteria, the high school principal cracks down on the affected girls and prevents them from attending their prom. Joanna fires back at the school, but victory eludes her. When the kids decide to throw a prom of their own, Billy and Joanna...

As threats against Joanna and Billy escalate, Joanna digs her heels in on the case. Relying on the expert testimony of a respected neuropsychologist, Joanna expects he'll prove once and for all that the girls have been poisoned.

Stuck in Millwood without a case and no firm to return to, Joanna is at loose ends on what to do next until a whistleblower comes forward.

Billy and Joanna make the horrific discovery of a huge dump site on a school field and nearby farmland. They finally have enough evidence to certify as a class but this fight won't be easy.

With Joanna disqualified and the clock running out on Billy who'll have to face Joanna's father alone, Joanna must think outside the box if they want to win this. She must face the one person who may be able to help her defeat her father, her mom. Not only does she learn the truth about her father, she gains the critical piece of evidence that ties the mill and their parent company to the dumping. Regrettably, Joanna returns too late and finds the case in shambles, her named plaintiff removed and the class de-certified.

Joanna Hanley and her colleague get some help from a surprising source.