A Civil Action/ Irac Style Format - 1370 Words

A Civil Action FACTS: This movie, A Civil Action, is about a lawsuit that began with the death of twelve people, and eight of those twelve people were children. This all takes place in the little city of Woburn Wells, Massachusetts. This is a small city that has two companies that are located really close to the cities river. One company is called W.R. Grace Company and the other is Beatrice Foods. Jan Schlitnmann is the main attorney for the plaintiff’s side along with his partners; Conway, Gordon, and Crowley. The attorney for W.R. Grace was William Cheeseman, and the attorney for Beatrice foods was Jerome Fatcher. Anne Anderson initially told one of Jan’s partners her story and put many calls into their office. However, she never†¦show more content†¦Well, the families of Woburn Wells wanted no part of the money. They just wanted the problem fixed and an apology from the ones who caused this tragedy. Jan Schlichtmann initially didnt want to take the case because he doesnt 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 doesnt care because of the money. Not until he realizes how big the companies are does he take the case. The firm took the case and went to work. The first hearing ruled that Beatrice Foods wasn’t to be held accountable, just W.R. Grace Company, There were many scientific and complex tests that had to be run in order to prove that the water was contaminated by W.R. Grace. This was all at the cost of Schlichtmann’s firm. As the case goes on he isnt able to achieve what he ultimately wanted to do because the Grace Company has so much money that they will almost always win. Schlichtmann’s firm goes into debt trying to win this case but ultimately has to settle because they cant go on. Schlichtmann ended up settling with W.R. Grace for 8 million dollars. After all debts are paid (all of the equipment that was rented, the Dr.’s that ran the tests, the scientist’s, etc.) and the fee for Schlichtmann’s firm, the families were awarded $357,000 per family! This made the families very upset. Not because of the amount of the