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Civil Action (Main Characters (Jan Schlichtmann (Is an American attorney…
Civil Action
Main Characters
Jan Schlichtmann
Is an American attorney specializing in personal injury law and toxic torts. He became famous in 1980s in a result of his lawsuit against W.R. Grace and Beatrice Co. about chemicals being found in the drinking water causing the death of children from leukemia.
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James Gordon
Was the financial adviser for Jan's law firm. He tried to get Jan to understand how much money he was losing and tried to get him to think straight that they were drowning in debt. He then left the company with the rest of the workers.
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Anne Anderson
Was one of the mothers of the children that died from leukemia. She was able to get Jan to represent her in the case against W. R. Grace and Beatrice Foods.
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Ethical Dilemmas
- Mr. Love’s dilemma was when he went to Anne Anderson and said an apology for what him and his company did. Jan must overcome going through the case with dealing about the bankrupt crisis. He decided to take in more than he could handle and it backfired. He also got too involved with the case which clouded his judgement. Leaving him to make bad calls which lead him to go bankrupt and lose his customers and employees.
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Questions:
- Businesses are portrayed as a negative in the movie. Beatrice Food’s attorney Jerry Facher tried to do everything he could to get out of the case. Instead of fixing his mistakes he tried to only get out by money. Also William Cheeseman, attorney for W. R. Grace, he knew what he did was wrong and refused to give them what the plaintiffs wanted. William tried to hide what his company has been doing to continue to sell their products. Even though his products were part of the causes of the children’s deaths.
- Lawyers are portrayed poorly or negative. The defendants showed no sympathy towards the families during the family's stories. They were actually planning out how they are going to try to settle because if the jury heard this they would owe more money than they wanted to pay.
- His reasoning for not taking the case was that he didn’t see it winning. He went and saw the water and the companies and realized he could make a lot of money with doing this case. I would only take the case if I knew I could handle all of the business items and money issues.
- The point of using the glasses of water as a thematic symbol was because the case was about contaminated water. To show how often or easily people drink water without wondering if anything is wrong with it. While watching people drink the water I grew uneasy. Just because the fact I knew the case was about contaminated water.
- Jerry had said that the parents can’t be able to testify. He said this because he realized that the jury would show sympathy. Making the defendants owe more money than they wanted.
- The whistleblowers in the film were Al Love. He stepped forward to show justice for what him and his company have done. Plus to find answers and to protect his family.
- The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, as amended, is a United States federal law that protects federal whistleblowers who work for the government and report agency misconduct. A federal agency violates the Whistleblower Protection Act if agency authorities take retaliatory personnel action against any employee or applicant because of disclosure of information by that employee or applicant. Whistleblowers may file complaints that they believe reasonably evidences a violation of a law, rule or regulation; gross mismanagement; gross waste of funds; an abuse of authority; or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety.
- Growing public awareness and concern for controlling water pollution led to sweeping amendments in 1972. As amended in 1972, the law became commonly known as the Clean Water Act. The 1972 amendments: Established the basic structure for regulating pollutant discharges into the waters of the United States.
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