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Erin Brockovich

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“Erin Brockovich” – Movie Overview

By

Eryn Pilla, Hamilton Onyeukwu & Jennifer Poff

The movie “Erin Brockovich” starring Julia Roberts is loosely based on a true story. In the movie, Roberts plays a sassy single mom who is down on her luck and struggling to provide for her three children. She was involved in a car accident and sued the driver of the other car- a wealthy doctor who she felt deserved the blame for the accident. The lawsuit was spearheaded by her lawyer, Ed Masry who eventually lost the case and caused Brockovich to seek employment from him as compensation and charity.

During her early time as a legal assistant, Brockovich stumbled across a pro bono file containing information about a case Masry was handling in which …show more content…

In this case, PG&E deceived the entire town of Hinkley by allowing them to believe that their water source was safe. Deception was clearly portrayed throughout the film, with a particularly good example toward the beginning of the movie. The film described how PG&E held a meeting with 200 people from Hinkley to explain the benefits of PG&E using chromium 3 at their plant. Chromium 3 is similar to hexavalent chromium (or chromium 6), however the deception is clear when the film goes on to show that PG&E was not actually using chromium 3 at their plant, and was actually using the harmful chromium 6 instead. Unfortunately, this issue was not resolved in the film as PG&E continued their denial and dishonesty until the very end of the film. This company ended up losing the largest direct-action lawsuit in United States history. In 1996, Brockovich and Masry’s team of legal professionals secured a $333-million-dollar settlement for the 634 residents of Hinkley, California.

References

Erin Brockovich. (2000). In Internet Movie Database.
Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195685/

Soderbergh, S. (Producer), & Grant, S. (Writer). (2000). Erin Brockovich [Motion picture]. United States: Paramount

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