Law & Order season 13
season of television series

The thirteenth season of the American legal drama series Law & Order premiered on NBC on October 2, 2002, and ended on May 21, 2003.
Cast
Arthur Branch (played by Fred Dalton Thompson) replaced season 12's Nora Lewin (Dianne Wiest) in the role of District Attorney. The resulting ensemble cast was the most stable in the history of the Law & Order series up to that time, being unchanged for 2 seasons over 48 episodes (Seasons 7 and 8 were the first seasons with no cast changes as well, however those seasons totaled 47 episodes). The longest period of cast stability overall encompassed the last four episodes of Season 18 and the entirety of Seasons 19 and 20, a total of 49 episodes.
The public source identifies “Law & Order season 13” as season of television series. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Order, season and television.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Law & Order season 13”, the useful work is to connect “season of television series” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3729037. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2002 and 2003.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Law & Order season 13”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Law & Order season 13 primary sources, Law & Order season 13 archive and Order research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Law & Order season 13”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Law & Order season 13” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.