During the third season, Diane Polley was battling cancer; despite her illness she decided to continue working. Her illness was apparent on-screen, as she continued to get thinner and thinner. At the same time her stage make-up appeared heavier and heavier. She died during the middle of the season. Her character was not replaced. It was explained on the show that she found love while on vacation and decided not to return to the firm.
The character Carrie Barr had to be written out because Sonja Smits suffered a near-fatal ectopic pregnancy during episode shooting.
Donnelly Rhodes claimed in an interview that his character, ruthless lawyer R.J. Williams, was was loosely based on the character of J.R. Ewing of Dallas (1978). Rhodes claimed that his character's initials, R.J., were in fact an anagram of J.R.