Case Analysis: A Civil Action
A Civil Action
When multiple children in the city of Woburn contracted leukemia amongst other diseases, the parents believed that it was because of contamination from the local wells. The parents wanted an apology from the people that ruined their lives, so they filed a lawsuit. Jan Schlichtmann, a personal injury lawyer, was asked to be the lead attorney on the case. He first went in looking for a settlement. He commented on how the point of civil court is to settle. “They settle. Out of the 780,000, only 12,000 or 1 1/2 percent ever reach a verdict. The whole idea of lawsuits is to settle, to compel the other side to settle.”[1] When corporations have a lawsuit filed against them, they don’t make that big of a deal out of it because there’s not a full case …show more content…
This is apparent when Gordon, the firm’s financial adviser says, “every credit-card application we send in, we get two more in the mail. Here's one from some bank I've never heard of, in North Dakota. Fill it out. Fill them all out. It's the last great pyramid scheme in America.”[1] Therefore, pressure is put on the Schlichtmann to settle. However Jan turns down a twenty million dollar settlement from Beatrice, right before the jury finds Beatrice innocent. “With respect to W.R. Grace the jury has Answered "yes" to question one regarding Trichloroethylene contamination requiring we continue the proceedings against Grace to a second stage of this trial. In regard to Beatrice the jury has answered "no" to question one and all its points pertaining to contamination which renders questions two and three inapplicable thus, ending the case against Beatrice.”[1] Since Beatrice ended up being found not guilty, Jan ends up having to settle for eight million with W.R. Grace in order to break even with his firm. In the future Jan discovers an employee who admits to dumping TCE into a lake, and Jan turns the case over to the E.P.A where they end up winning, and the companies have to spend tens of millions
When multiple children in the city of Woburn contracted leukemia amongst other diseases, the parents believed that it was because of contamination from the local wells. The parents wanted an apology from the people that ruined their lives, so they filed a lawsuit. Jan Schlichtmann, a personal injury lawyer, was asked to be the lead attorney on the case. He first went in looking for a settlement. He commented on how the point of civil court is to settle. “They settle. Out of the 780,000, only 12,000 or 1 1/2 percent ever reach a verdict. The whole idea of lawsuits is to settle, to compel the other side to settle.”[1] When corporations have a lawsuit filed against them, they don’t make that big of a deal out of it because there’s not a full case …show more content…
This is apparent when Gordon, the firm’s financial adviser says, “every credit-card application we send in, we get two more in the mail. Here's one from some bank I've never heard of, in North Dakota. Fill it out. Fill them all out. It's the last great pyramid scheme in America.”[1] Therefore, pressure is put on the Schlichtmann to settle. However Jan turns down a twenty million dollar settlement from Beatrice, right before the jury finds Beatrice innocent. “With respect to W.R. Grace the jury has Answered "yes" to question one regarding Trichloroethylene contamination requiring we continue the proceedings against Grace to a second stage of this trial. In regard to Beatrice the jury has answered "no" to question one and all its points pertaining to contamination which renders questions two and three inapplicable thus, ending the case against Beatrice.”[1] Since Beatrice ended up being found not guilty, Jan ends up having to settle for eight million with W.R. Grace in order to break even with his firm. In the future Jan discovers an employee who admits to dumping TCE into a lake, and Jan turns the case over to the E.P.A where they end up winning, and the companies have to spend tens of millions