Rafferty's Rules

- Season 4

(1988)

Michael wrestles with the concept of possession after the discovery of Aboriginal remains creates a conflict of ownership between the state and the Indigenous community.

Michael is caught between a rock and a hard place when he is forced to decide the fate of a young boy whose doctors believe is sick, but whose parents are refusing further tests on religious grounds.

Fulvio learns that his teacher and idol isn't quite the perfect magistrate that he thought after he takes over when Michael falls ill.

The courthouse becomes the centre of the fallout from a Secret Intelligence Agency training exercise.

Gibson faces his past after a series of alcohol-related prosecutions force him to confront the reasons he gave up drinking.

A series of sexual assaults has consequences for the courthouse when the police fit up suspects and Paulyne is attacked in her own home.

Paulyne finds that her personal life is mirroring her professional life when her former lover Gavin reappears and announces that he is getting married, just as she is defending a woman who refuses to accept that her marriage is over.

Paulyne accuses an insurance company of racism when they report a Lebanese man to the police after he claims his precious rings were stolen just days after taking out a policy.

Michael, Paulyne and Gibson find their ethics challenged when they deal with a man accused of raping his wife; however, it soon becomes apparent to all that the case is far more sinister than they ever could have imagined.

Rafferty is confronted with the limitations of the law when it comes to dispensing justice.

The courthouse finds itself becoming caught up in the deadly web of a cult. Michael is shocked when he goes on an early morning run and discovers the body of a young woman washed up on the beach.

Michael takes responsibility for a foreign woman after she shows up on his doorstep.

A heatwave frays tempers at the courthouse when everyone arrives at work to find the air-conditioning broken.

The personal and the professional converge for Flicker when the anti-nuclear group his son is involved in begins protesting the arrival of nuclear warships.

Rafferty's 6 year old son goes missing.

The Bard comes into the courtroom when an elderly man reciting Shakespeare is arrested for busking without a licence.

Michael's hopes of reuniting with his estranged wife are dashed when Joanne reveals that she has come to visit to end their relationship, and then their son falls ill.

An unexpected tragedy forces Paulyne to re-evaluate her life; meanwhile she struggles to remain objective while defending a man accused of manslaughter over the death of a pedestrian.

New Legal Aid solicitor Lisa Blake starts work at the courthouse; however, she soon finds herself coming into conflict with Michael when she grandstands in the courtroom, then fails to fully prepare a case in mitigation for a defendant.

A journalist sets out to prove that corruption exists in Rafferty's court.

Lisa continues to have problems settling in, with her abrasive nature putting Michael offside.

Lisa begins to wonder whether evil does exist when she defends a sociopath.

The entire courthouse struggles to cope when Michael is forced to decide whether a man accused of murder has a case to answer.

Lisa defends a young man who seems to be heading for the same life of crime as his father once did, but she refuses to believe Ray Brown's claims that the father's intentions are anything but honourable.

Michael's world is turned upside down after learning that he has a twenty-two year old daughter from a previous relationship.

Flicker's prosecution against a young policeman who has broken the law is complicated when he begins to recognise that something even more suspicious is going on.

More than one life is on the line after a former children's television performer is charged with propositioning young boys for sex in the changing rooms of a local swimming pool.

A criminal nicknamed 'The Hairy Bandit' is causing havoc and the courthouse is feeling the impact.

Michael's divorce from Joanne officially comes through, just as former Public Solicitor Paulyne Gray reappears in his life after a six month absence.

Michael considers his attitudes towards both politics and rural life after his cousin comes to the city, having now been elected to Parliament and holding very different opinions to Michael.