Jonathan Harr A Civil Action Analysis

Kicker, a 3 year-old boy, who has never been to a doctor, never received any type of shot or poke, eaten a clean, nutrient dense diet throughout his short three years and never had anything toxic on his skin, was sitting in the cold hospital room waiting for news of a diagnosis. Nurses came in and out of the waiting room, bringing in needles, advice, paperwork and machines. All of which were intimidating to a 3 year-old and his mother, Season, who happened to be a holistic nutritionist. A nurse came into the waiting room and informed Season that an Oncologist needed to speak with her. At that moment, Season began holding her jaw tight to fight back the tears knowing that Oncologist specialized in cancer.

A Civil Action is a true story based on a law case between the defendants, W.R Grace and Beatriz, and the plaintiffs, Schlichtmann Conway & Crowley. After a tragic accidents happen in a small town called Woburn, Massachusetts, families of their lost ones seek help at a personal injury law offices of Schlichtmann Conway & Crowley. After several weeks of unreturned calls, Ann Anderson, a parents who lost her son to Leukemia, brought it to Jan Schlichtmann, the head lawyer of the firms attention. Deciding that there was no possible case, Mr. Schlichtmann turned down the families, only to accept the case after seeing the possible income his firm could receive. “Who is going to apologize to you and pay me.” [1] Soon after, the plaintiff's, Jan Schlichtmann and his firm, file a complaint to the two companies responsible for the accidents in Woburn, W.R Grace and Beatriz.

A Civil Action is about an environmental pollution court case in Woburn, Massachusetts. The case focused on an industrial solvent, trichloroethylene, from a local leather company, which contaminated a local aquifer that eventually had lethal consequences on the inhabitants of the town. After Anne Anderson’s son dies of leukemia, she filed a civil lawsuit along with eight other families against The John J. Riley Tannery by Beatrice Foods and Cryovac Manufacturing W. R. Grace Company because their industrial operations correlated to fatal cases of cancer and leukemia in children as well as other health issues reported among the citizens. Anne implored Jan Schlichtmann, a tenacious personal injury specialist, to take the case. When Schlichtmann

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

Jonathan Harr wrote a compelling novel, called A Civil Action, on the actual events of a thrilling court case involving two major corporations and the families who were affected greatly. In Woburn, Massachusetts there were twenty-eight children who contracted acute lymphocytic leukemia between the years of 1964 and 1986. The explanation for the contraction of the disease and even the death of some of the children was discovered in the water; two municipal wells near the town were found to be contaminated with toxic chemicals. Eight families filed suit against W.R. Grace & Co. and Beatrice Foods Inc., accusing them for the contamination of the wells and the death of their children. The families only wanted an apology and the truth but when

“A civil action” is a non-fiction movie created by Jonathan Harr. The movie is about a case in Woburn, Massachusetts involving water contamination. Anne Anderson notices an unusual high rate of leukemia in Woburn after her son dies from drinking water, and she and the other families that had experienced the same as Anne, decides to see a lawyer to help them look into the problem. Jan Schlichtmann, played by John Travolta gets involved and he looks into the case. At first Schlichtmann decides not to take the case because he discovers that there`s a lack of evidence. Anderson and the other families convince Schlichtmann to take the case and after looking in to the case he finds a evidence containing TCE (trichloroethylene) contamination in the

“’So what’s your story?’” she then then replies “’I already told you my story. I was diagnosed when-‘” He interrupts and says “’No, not your cancer story. Your story. Interests, hobbies, passions, etcetera… Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who becomes their disease. I know so many people like that. It’s disheartening. Like cancer is in the growth business, right? The taking-people-over business. But surely you haven’t let it succeed prematurely’” (Green, 32).

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

From the beginning, Engelberg shows the struggle between the life threatening nature of cancer and dealing with

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.

Throughout life, many individuals experience difficulties due to growing up in everyday life. While going in depth of the human life, it is discovered that there are many diseases and disorders that affect humans’ everyday functions. A very popular disease that has traumatically affected the human body is cancer. Cancer is a disease that spreads throughout your body in many ways. The purpose of cancer is to attach to a blood cell in your body and cause a plague within itself, causing the body to initially shut down and die. This disease contains many forms and have many causes to it. However its main goal is to destroy the human body.

A Civil Action is based upon a true story that Jonathan Harr, a former staff writer of New England Monthly describes a case that in the legal system that is fascinating and compelling. The story of a impracticable quest by an idealistic young personal-Injury lawyer, whose aim was to prove that two conglomerates, Beatrice Foods and W.R Grace, allegedly polluted the water in Woburn ,Mass. a Boston suburb, with carcinogens. Jan had hoped that a victory would send a message to the boardrooms to America and felt that the culture of Leukemia in Woburn guaranteed his success. He never realized that he would be comforted with problems in the justice system.

“The Emperor of All Maladies” captured the whole essence of cancer. This book gave a very good narrative of the historical record of cancer, the scientists and important public figures who contributed to the fight against a disease that has so much caused despair, pain, disfiguring of the body and worst of all, death. Cancer is seen as the abnormal growth of cells. A normal cell becomes cancerous when there is a defect in the regulation of its growth. Cancerous cells also tend to be elusive and resistant to treatments. Numerous attempts have been channeled into demystifying the nature of cancer. Some of these attempts proved abortive while a few served as a harbinger of hope. Cancer have proved to be part of our genetic makeup, hence, total eradication of it remains a future accomplishment.

     The legal system is an essential element in the successful operation of this country. It is a system that is utilized every day, by every type of person, from the average blue-collar worker to the average Wall Street broker. There is a multitude of ways that the legal system is put to use. One such way is the class action lawsuit. A Civil Action, by Jonathan Harr, uses the account of a single case, Anne Anderson, et al., v. W.R. Grace & Co., et al, to illustrate the power and importance of class action lawsuits in the civil justice system.

The movie a Civil Action covers the Woburn Case which was Anne Anderson and other small families who decided to sue the companies Beatrice Foods and W.R. Grace. The reason for Anderson and the other families to decide to sue was because they believe the companies dumping of poisonous chemicals was the reason to their children’s leukemia deaths. However, when they reached out to Jan Schlichtmann to handle their case he was not the most positive on wanting to help them, “Ms. Anderson, our firm is very small, three attorneys that's it, which means we can only take on so many cases at once and we have to be very careful on the ones we do take because we can't afford to lose, our clients pay nothing, we pay everything, and the only we get paid back