Like King's Men, Case for the Defence was devised by Ron McLean when he first began work with Grundy's. The program focuses on Sydney defence lawyer John Case and his girlfriend/legal partner Winsome ('Win') Blake.
Don Storey notes, in his Classic Australian Television, that unlike such predecessors as Consider Your Verdict, Divorce Court, and The Unloved, which focused on events in the court room, 'events prior to the cases coming to court were a major part of the storylines, and were backed up by extensive location filming'. Storey summarises the program as follows:
The series consistently followed a tried and true formula. John Case always seemed to get the baffling cases that, on the surface, appeared impossible to defend. Each episode had Case and friends involved in a certain amount of sleuthing, with a myriad of suspects and many plot twists and turns. The real culprit would then be revealed at the end of the show. Although the format was predictable, it was very well written, with competent acting and direction, and had high production standards. The only valid criticism of the show is that it was produced on videotape, rather than film, which gave it a cheap and amateurish look.
Albert Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, notes that the program was 'not particularly successful', though it had 'high production values' and 'was one of John Hamblin's better television roles'.
