...The movie Civil Action is about personal injury lawyer named Jan Schlichtman who sues two major companies, Beatrice foods, and Grace Industries. Jan becomes too emotionally attached to the case. At first he is all about the money then it becomes more than that to him and he gets to involved in finding the truth, and his judgment becomes slighted. Throughout the movie and the case; civil trail procedure is shown from jury selection to the verdict. In the movie Jan starts out as a rich millionaire personal injury lawyer who is also one ofBoston’s top 10 bachelors. Then an orphan case one day had landed on his desk, and this case was filed by the town ofWoobergfor the wrongful death of eight children. Jan said no to the town at first and told them that there was no money involved for him so he would not do it, but he then got curious and did some research and found that 2 major companies were involved in this case. The companies Beatrice Foods and Grace Industries. So then Jan decides that now he has the opportunity to make a lot of money so he tells the town he has reconsidered and will do the case. Once the complaint is filed and the two companies are summoned to the pre trail court, the two lawyers for the companies are Mr. Cheeseman for Grace and Mr. Facher for Beatrice. Grace Industry’s lawyer Mr. Cheeseman tried to overturn the case by using Rule 11. Rule 11 is a very old and ridiculous rule that has not been used in decades so then his appeal is overturned. After the appeal...
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...A Civil Action Trial Procedure In the movie, A Civil Action, a civil lawsuit takes place between families of the victims of a small town Woburn, Massachusetts against the corporations Beatrice Foods, and W.R. Grace Company. The corporations are being sued by the families for indirectly killing their children by contaminating the water that runs through their town. The attorney that files a lawsuit against the big corporations is Jan Schlichtmann. This movie portrays a great example of a civil trial procedure in the U.S. Court. The first stage of a civil trial procedure are the pleadings, which include the filing of complain, and motions to dismiss. A complaint was made by the families of Woburn, stating that the deaths of their children were the cause of the contamination of their town’s water supply. The complaints were made for the corporations Beatrice Foods, and W.R. Grace Company. Mr. Cheeseman, the attorney on behalf of Grace Company made a motion to dismiss the case but the judge ruled otherwise. The second stage is the pretrial, where discovery of facts and motions for summary judgment take place. In A Civil Action, the discoveries began with depositions of witnesses by the victim’s family members, residents of Woburn, and employees that work for the factories that are being blamed for contaminating the water. Witnesses came up stating that they were experiencing events of abnormal health issues and that it could be correlated with contamination of the water. One...
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...After viewing the 1998 film “A Civil Action” and reading the article by Marc Galanter about “Why the ‘Haves’ Come out Ahead” we see that the framework applied to the American legal system by Galanter in his article at this point in time is held true in the film. What Galanter does is tell us about the two options that sides may be in a legal case. First there are the One-Shotters, which we will refer to as the OSs. These indivduals are often those who are not regulars within the legal system and often are only there once or maybe twice. A fine example of OSs are the husband and wife in a divorce case or the two parents in a custody case. As suggested by the name, these people usually are only in once. When it comes to the results that they expect it is often tangible. Because this is there one and only case, they are not concerned with a reputation in the courts but instead with real, physical, in a way, results. On the flip-side you have the Repeat Players which we will refer to as the RPs. These individuals, again as the name suggests, are those who frequent the courtroom and are often involved the same kinds of cases. These are what one would expect them to be such as the IRS trying people who did not pay their income taxes or a large corporation. Now the goals for a RP are very different than those of an OS. Instead of the tangible goals of the one-shotter, the RPs are out to often establish a reputation and establish relations to shape future decisions made in the courts...
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...A Civil Action We live on the blue planet; a planet that is named after the abundant presence of water on its surface. So yes there is a lot of water but how much of that water is actually useful to us? Most of the water on Earth is deposited in seas and oceans i.e. it is salty. The human species cannot digest saltwater hence the only water that is useful to us is in the handful of lakes, ponds and under the ground surface. Thus our illusion of there being enough water for us to live on for generations needs to be break. After watching the Civil Action, I realized how much the people around me and I take water for granted. Because it is available to us readily, we do not even think twice about our usage patterns. But we need to realize that the situation depicted in the Civil Action is real and much more common than we think it is. There are people in this world who do not have access to clean drinking water and there are also people who are being lied to about the cleanliness of their drinking water. Water is a basic necessity of life because we need it to survive; in simple words, it is our basic human right. But as seen in the Civil Action, there are many people in this world who are being deprived of their basic right. In the current world, companies like those depicted in the movie are chasing after monetary things like profit and in the process are neglecting safety and health. But is money more important than health? I don’t think so. The Civil Action was a heart-warming...
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...Civil Action Assignment 3 1. An expert witness is a witness who has knowledge beyond that of the ordinary lay person enabling him/her to give testimony regarding an issue that requires expertise to understand. Experts are allowed to give opinion testimony which a non-expert witness may be prohibited from testifying to. 2. Both sides had to bring in experts in regards to the chemicals that the wells were contaminated with. Then they had to bring in experts in ground water movement, they had to prove chemicals were dumped, and had to prove the chemicals made the people sick. Proving of causation was the reason why so many experts were called on. Every aspect of the evidence had to be proven to be as solid as possible to be allowed in court. 3. Hydrogeologist, Geologist, Engineering Geologist, Soil scientists, Geochemist 4. The first issue is money. Experts are paid for their time and even though it creates a substantial incentive for the expert to advocate a party's position that is not supported by available research and data. This problem is particularly acute with the professional witness, who makes her living testifying as an expert. A professional witness is highly motivated out of self interest to develop relationships with lawyers because those relationships are the expert's lifeblood. The more effective the expert is in advancing the lawyer's case, the greater the likelihood the expert will be retained again. The Safeguards of the Adversary System...
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...A sum of money awarded in a civil action by a court to indemnify a person for the particular loss, detriment, or injury suffered as a result of the unlawful conduct of another. Compensatory damages provide a plaintiff with the monetary amount necessary to replace what was lost, and nothing more. They differ from Punitive Damages, which punish a defendant for his or her conduct as a deterrent to the future commission of such acts. In order to be awarded compensatory damages, the plaintiff must prove that he or she has suffered a legally recognizable harm that is compensable by a certain amount of money that can be objectively determined by a judge or jury. One of the more heated issues facing the U.S. legal system during the past quarter century has been the call for reform of states' tort laws. health care providers and other organizations have sought to limit the amount of damages a plaintiff can receive for pain and suffering because they claim that large jury awards in Medical Malpractice cases cause premiums on medical insurance policies to rise, thus raising the overall costs of medical services. California took the lead in addressing concerns with rising medical costs when it enacted the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, Cal. Civ. Code § 3333.2 (1997). The act limits the recoverable amount for non-economic loss, such as pain and suffering, to $250,000 in actions based on professional Negligence against certain health care providers. Although the statute has been...
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...The founder of Tacopina & Seigel in New York, New York, Joseph Tacopina devotes most of his practice to criminal defense, but he also represents clients in business litigation matters and plaintiffs in personal injury suits. As a criminal defense attorney, he represents clients charged with felonies and misdemeanors as well as juvenile offenders. Examples of the types of cases he handles include white collar crimes, racketeering, assault and drug crimes. He also represents clients in matters related to discrimination, driving while intoxicated, securities law, police misconduct, expungements and civil rights. Mr. Tacopina completed his undergraduate studies at Skidmore College in 1988. Three years later, he earned his Juris Doctor from Quinnipiac...
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...Scenario Involving Civil Liability and Civil Action Jacquelyne Anderson Professor Phillip Edwards CJ499-01 September 14, 2014 In this scenario project I will identify four alleged crimes and one criminal civil action. In addition, I will apply principles involving criminal law relevant to the criminal justice practice, and I will demonstrate my understanding of civil liabilities relative to criminal justice agencies, and practitioners. Furthermore, I will identify case laws relevant to the possible civil action that could be brought against the police officer, the department and the city. After addressing these issues, I will have described a scenario involving a civil liability and a civil action. When identifying the four alleged crimes and the one criminal civil action, regarding this scenario project, the four alleged crimes are: 1) attempted robbery, 2) drug possession, 3) carrying a gun, and 4) assault and battery. After speaking to a female victim, Officer Jones noticed an individual who partially fit the description, and walked toward them. Officer Jones identified himself, and told the individual to stop. Unfortunately, this individual did not stop, and kept on walking from the officer, and the officer shouted again identifying himself, but this time the individual stopped. When the individual stopped he looked at the officer and there was a big bulge in his right pocket, but refused to put his hands where the cop could see them. The subject began...
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...The case in the film A Civil Action deals with a group of families in a small town north of Boston who sued major US companies for leukemia deaths of children, in which were caused by the dumping of poisonous chemicals that entered their local drinking water. The case was against companies such as W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods. Jan a Lawyer defending the families was able to prove that these companies were the reason for the contamination to the local water supply that was causing the health issue. The families wanted an apology, Jan told them asking for money is the closest thing to and apology they’ll get. “ The only apology you’ll get is the one from their checkbooks, the only sincere apology you’ll get is from me… I’m sorry.” [1] If the...
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...In the film A Civil Action, a small personal injury law firm makes a living off conning the public, and winning lawsuits. In order to gain the public’s support to help win their cases, they pretend to care about their clients incidents. They make public appearances claiming they only want to serve justice for their client, and they don’t care about the money. It’s false. They use that as a tactic to gain support when in reality it is just about the money. One case, however, changes the cold heart of Jan Schlichtmann, who ultimately changes the lives of many people as well as his own. The main case that the movie is about is a water safety case. Several families in a small town called Woburn in Massachusetts have lost their children from leukemia....
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...Courts of law in America have one major flaw. The pursuit of truth is overshadowed by the pursuit of money. In A Civil Action, Jan Schlichtmann greatest impacts the resolution of the environmental issue by prioritizing justice over money. Towards the beginning of the movie, Schlichtmann is shown in a silent settlement discussion with another lawyer. His client is visibly severely paralyzed. Schlichtmann doesn’t even seem to consider any offer below what he believes to be just and fair to his client, whose life has essentially been ruined, regardless of each “final” amount. He finally settles for $2 million. Schlichtmann could have easily declined and proceeded with the trial to earn more money for himself, but he decided to only take the justified amount for his...
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...The early stages of the American Revolution, the British were in a bit of an unstable circumstances with their government. After the British handled the parliament situation they tried to reform the British Empire. The first step of the reform was the Navigation acts. The navigation acts, were a set of acts that restricted ships from navigating from the Britain and to the colonies. The navigation act lasted for over 200 years. After the French and Indian war, on October 9, 1763, King George III enacted the proclamation of 1763. This proclamation came about by the Great Britain acquired French territory next to the colonies or in the present day mid west. This forbid settles from settling past a line around the Appalachian Mountains. The British restricted settlers and it was very clear they also tried to make the settlers in the colonies very hard and troubled. The colonies did not take these acts and proclamations lightly. Americans quickly resisted the British reformed acts. The American Resistance began after the British Parliament by quickly constructed the Sugar Act of 1764. This act set the presidency that the American colonies could act in the same manner in the British. This act was started because during the long standing Navigation act, the British paid the revenue raising taxes, now with Sugar act this turned the tables and the colonies were now taking the brunt of that. The British parliaments goal was to raise 100,000 pounds, which some sources even say that is...
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...How far were the actions of the African Americans the main reason for the advancement of the Civil Rights in the period 1865-1980? “Power concedes nothing without demand, it never has and it never will”[1]. Said by Fredrick Douglass in 1857, an escaped slave who had bearded the brunt of the slave years. He had come to the realisation that African Americans had a fountain of “power”; however that power that they possessed would never establish anything without a “demand”. Fredrick Douglass awoke the conscious of African Americans to make them realise that wanting to be free and wanting to achieve full civil rights was not enough, neither was enduring a life under white supremacy waiting for life after death to see a new dawn .Believing and hoping was not enough. “Power concedes nothing without demand” the solution is to be willing to work hard to establish it yourself by demanding what belongs to them. However using power in order to concede civil rights was a struggle which was acknowledged by Fredrick Douglass “Without struggle there is no success”. To achieve advancement in African American Civil Rights, African Americans had to undergo a process of struggle. A rainbow is not made without rain; you can not want rain without thunder and lightening being accompanied by it. To achieve full civil rights African Americans had to pay the price along the way which was persecution, de-humanisation and scrutiny. Martin Luther King being inspired by Fredrick Douglass said “Freedom...
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...Civil disputes are cases of disagreement in self-interest between individuals, large corporation or organization under the circumstance that no breaking of criminal laws (Maclntyre, 2010). Cases are mainly to do with torts, contract matters, probate of wills, trusts, property and deceased estates. The verdict of litigation is largely by means of financial compensation to the winning party that includes court costs as well. It is encouraged to resolve disputes of the above-mentioned through mediation, conciliation, arbitration and tribunals nowadays. As any litigation takes lots of time and money, these alternatives can concurrently improve efficiency and save money as well as time. Mediation involves a third party to phase in the negotiations of disputants is regarded as Mediator whose position is neutral and has no self interest in the case (Hibbert, 2008). Mediator is skillful in the technique of communication who will structure schedule aimed to keep matters simple and to identify the key issue of the dispute. Disputants will be guided to narrow their differences to come to a consensus for a mutually satisfactory outcome acceptable to both parties concerned. Mediation schemes are in The Court of Appeal and the Commercial Court. Manchester Court Mediation Scheme is available in all county courts (Hibbert, 2008). Conciliation is a scheme which is quite similar to mediation. However, Conciliator plays a relatively active role by proposing solution to disputants direct...
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...When it comes to the pretention of Civil Disobedience and what can be seen as acts of indirect and direct civil disobedience. H.A. Bedau and Henry David Thoreau come to mind because of how they both saw things in different light but at a meaningful level they both thought the same about the government even through they expressed there ideals in completely different ways. Their ideas cross on many different paths as to which even Bedau talks about Thoreau in his essay in regards to being “responsible” for your actions. The main premise of Bedau’s argument in his essay of “civil disobedience and personal responsibility for justice” is to compare the idea of what is civil disobedience and who is responsible for the actions. Bedau spends a great...
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