Analysis of Jonathan Harr´s A Civil Action Essay

In class, we have learned many important topics in the legal, ethical, and regulatory environment of business. However in the classroom setting, we have examined each of these topics individually. Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action allows us to see how the topics learned relate to one another in the context of a real world setting. His book provides an engaging read about the legal practice action while connecting the topics of the relationship between law, business, and ethics; the court system and litigation; alternative dispute resolution; and the nature of the corporation. A Civil Action complements the material learned in class, and it helps to create an overall cohesiveness between the topics learned in class that

In the movie “A Civil Action” Jan Schlichtmann takes on the case of his life as he prepares to take down, deep pockets, Beatrice Co. and Grace Foods. At first Schlichtmann does not see any money in the case and tosses it aside. When he goes to tell the families who lost their children that he can not take the case, Anne Anderson tells him about a tannery in the woods behind the neighborhood. After Schlichtmann goes and sees that these tanneries have deep pockets connected to them, he agrees to take on the case. Soon he gets emotionally invested; which was his one rule: to never get attached to a case and sympathize over the victims. In law he can not cloud his judgment with emotions because he will make irrational decisions based on the victims and forget what is best for

Were all the American grievances really justified, or were the British actually being more reasonable than most Americans have traditionally believed?

There are few things in life that could be worse than loosing you child to such a horrible disease as leukemia. One can only imagine having such a tragedy repeat itself throughout you community time after time. To compound such tragedies, imagine being poisoned yourself and having to fight some of the largest local corporations to prove the truth and get it stopped. This is the community setting for Jonathan Harr's true-to-life legal thriller A Civil Action. The book was an award winner for "Best Seller" in 1995 and was named the 1995 National Book Critics Circle Award.

"If the fires of freedom and civil liberties burn low in other lands, they must be made brighter in our own. If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free. If in other lands the eternal truths of the past are threatened by intolerance, we must provide a safe place for their perpetuation." Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1938 (Isaacs 66)

Jan Schlichtmann initially didn't want to take the case because he doesn't think that there will be any money in it for him and his firm. Even though he goes and sees how much pain this company has caused to the people in Woburn Wells, he still doesn't care because of the money. Not until he realizes how big the companies are does he take the case.

To understand the present and the future one must understand the past.  The book Civilities and Civil Rights by William Chafe provided a detailed look at North Carolina, specifically Greensboro between the years of the 1930s through the 1960’s. The state of events that occur can be linked to many of the events that one sees today due to the fact that the foundation and structure of the south was built on racism. No one came straight out and said they were racist, instead the problem was covered up with civilities. Few leaders wanted to rock the boat or change things that would allow African Americans rights. This report will show how the civilities during this time hindered the success of civil rights in Greensboro, and also how it was harder for activists in Greensboro to win support and accomplish their goals.

Civil litigation is court action brought to remedy a wrong or breach of contract. This is shown through Canterbury Bulldogs player Sonny Bill Williams breached his contract by walking out on the club after having signed a contract which was legally binding. Through this law reform has been further enhanced in Australian sport.

Declared in the U.S. Constitution every American or should it be person, is guaranteed civil rights. Civil rights did not just consist of “freedom of speech and assembly,” but as well as “the right to vote, the right to equal protection under the law, and procedural guarantees in criminal and civil rights,” (Dawood). It was not until 1791, that the Bill of Rights was appended to the constitution, which helped clarify these rights to citizens. “Rights were eventually applied against actions of the state governments in a series of cases decide by the Supreme Court,” Dawood stated. In previous years (1790-1803), the Supreme Court had little say in decisions being made by government. As time went on the Supreme Court took on more

In the film, A Civil Action, Trial Procedure was shown throughout the entire movie. There are many steps that need to be completed before a verdict and judgment can be reached. These steps are the pleadings, methods of discovery, pretrial hearings, jury selection, opening statements, introduction of evidence, cross examinations, closing arguments, instructions to the jury, and the verdict and judgment. The case in this movie was actually called Anderson v. Cryovac. The plaintiffs are the Anderson family, the Gamache family, the Kane family, the Robbins family, the Toomey family, and the Zona family. The plaintiffs’ attorneys are Jan Schlichtmann, Joe Mulligan, Anthony Roisman, Charlie Nesson, and Kevin Conway. The two co- defendants are

Published in the year 1776, common sense is an open challenge to the British government and the royal monarchy of that time. Paine spoke the language of a common person and worked for the independence of Great Britain. Paine states his opinion by arguing at the American Independence beginning with the theoretical and general reflections about religion and government and move on to the specifications about the situation in the colonies. By doing so, he aims to persuade the people to become more patriotic and join the fight against the British to become an independent nation. At the same time, Thoreau was one of the exciting practitioners of writing and was an intuitive genius. He worked hard to revise as well as refined his material.

Gladwell uses many critical points within the Civil Rights Movement to support his claim—the most notable of which is of the Greensboro sit-ins. In the early ‘60s, “seventy thousand students,” all across the South and Southwest took part in these revolutionary demonstrations (Gladwell). By this time Jim Crow laws were well in effect; the South and Southwest were plagued by racial discrimination and segregation. The consequences of disobeying these laws were brutally severe: unjust arrests, beatings, lynching’s, and even murder were subjected upon the African American community. Oppositionists, such as the Ku Klux Klan, retaliated in the form of violence and intimidation. Despite the grave risks involved, demonstrators heeded the call to action because they were deeply and personally connected to the cause. However, this radical assemblage of protestors did not occur on a whim or by chance. Instead, it all began when four black college students decided to risk their safety—and possibly their lives—by defying the discriminatory beliefs and norms embedded within the fabric of American society. Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, David Richmond, and Ezell Blair were all close friends. They spent nights together chugging beers and woefully discussed the injustices that pervaded their lives. These interactions were personal, direct, and intimate. Their interactions were not limited by the obscurities of text messaging, emoticons, acronyms, or ominous punctuations. Likewise, their

In the film, A Civil Action, Jan Schlittman, who is a successful lawyer, teams up with three of his colleagues to take on a case that could be worth millions. Multiple children have died in the small town of Woburn, Massachusetts due to a rare strain of leukemia and it seems too much of a coincidence to be chance. This small group chooses to file a major lawsuit against The John J. Riley Tannery by Beatrice Foods and Cryovac Manufacturing by the W. R. Grace Company. As the movie rolls on, Jan communicates the depths of the nightmares he and the plaintiffs encounter, not overlooking the long drawn out process of getting from point A to point B.[1] In total, Jan Schlittman was offered 45 million dollars as a settlement, but turned this down as

In the movie, “A Civil Action”, Jan Schlichtmann, a personal injury lawyer, takes on an orphan case from Woburn, Massachusetts concerning a local tannery that had polluted the water supply in the town. Several families (Toonneys, Auferios, Anderson, Kaynes, and Robbins) all had children who died from leukemia. (1) The devastated parents believed their children were slowly poisoned by drinking water from the town’s contaminated water supply. Schlichtmann, being a man only about the money rather than the justice, decides to take this case because he finds reason to believe that trichloroethylene (TCE) from Riley’s Tannery, a subsidy for Beatrice Foods, and chemical company, W.R. Grace are both very powerful and wealthy companies. Schlichtmann

In “A Civil Action” movie, a group of families (Toomeys, Auferios, Andersons, Kaynes and Robbins) from Woburn, Massachusetts hired Jan Schlichtmann, a personal-injury lawyer, to help represent them against the local tannery because multiple children in the town had died of leukemia and the families believed the local water supply was responsible.(1) The residents claimed that the water was, “foul and ill-smelling”. (1) Mr Schlichtmann knew it was a orphan case because no other law firm would want to spend the capital needed to prove the town’s wells were contaminated. After visiting the town, he agreed to fight for these families mainly for the money,