The Jailhouse Lawyer by Jas Patterson and Nancy Allen

 The Jailhouse Lawyer consists of 2 novellas. The first is about a single mother lawyer whose law firm refuses to pay her young son's extensive medical bills, so she quits and gets a job as the public defender in a small town. However, once she starts her job, she finds out that the judge has a very mercurial temper and is quick to throw people in jail for any perceived slight--then he charges them for room and board. Soon she's worried about her own safety and that of her young son. She eventually comes up with a solution that solves her problems.

The second story involves a lawyer from Arkansas who has left her small town behind and found a job for a big law firm in Chicago. Then her mother asks her to come home because her lawyer father has developed dementia and she needs help. The lawyer ends up taking over the father's practice, including the case of Amber, who had been taken in as a small child by second cousins on their isolated farm. One night the farm burns down, the cousins are found dead of bullet wounds, and Amber is the only one to escape--which makes her the prime suspect to the police. Wirh no allies, our young lawyer is determined to find a way to protect the clearly traumatized Amber and save her future.