A Civil Action By Jonathan Harr And On A True Story

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The odds of a plaintiff winning in civil court are two to one against. Most people do not even try, they settle. Out of the approximate 780,000 cases filed each year, only 12,000 or 1.5%, ever reach a verdict. These facts are some that are told in the movie A Civil Action. A Civil Action is based on the book by Jonathan Harr and on a true story. This movie, which was filmed in 1998, is about a water contamination case that happened in Massachusetts. The case is known as Anderson v. Cryovac. John Travolta plays the role of the main character Jan Schlichtmann, who is a personal injury attorney. Although typically a water contamination case would not fall into the hands of a personal injury attorney, but in this case, he was just supposed to be handling the case of a woman’s son who died of leukemia. She called him live on a radio talk show and explained that she had called his firm to handle the case, and now they would not return any of her calls. He explains how sorry he was and that he would take care of it as soon as possible. When he asks the workers back at his firm about this woman, Anne Anderson, who had called him, they explained that her son was one of twelve people that have died of leukemia in the town of Woburn, Massachusetts. Out of those twelve people that had died, eight of them were children. They also mentioned that the residents of Woburn think the water they use is somehow linked to leukemia, claiming that the water has always tasted funny. At first, Jan
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