AllMovie

Blythe Danner stars as a successful and somewhat sheltered attorney. After a chance meeting with abused teenaged streetwalker Beth Ehlers and tough social worker Joyce vanPatten, Ms. Danner quits her job to set up her own legal defense office for children. Four different "cases" intersect in this made-for-TV film, with emphasis on 12-year-old Tony LaTorre, who is on his own and perpetually in trouble with the law. Ms. Danner is compelled to battle bureaucracy, as well as the retrogressive attitudes of abusive parents who feel that their authority is being usurped. Assembled by several veterans of the TV series Lou Grant (including producer Seth Freeman), In Defense of Kids has the ring of truth throughout, even though it was not (as might be assumed) based on a true story.