A Civil Action

It's like this.

A dead plaintiff is rarely worth as much as a living, severely-maimed plaintiff.

However, if it's a long, agonizing death,

as opposed to a quick drowning or car wreck,

the value can rise considerably.

A dead adult in his 20s is generally worth less than one who is middle-aged.

A dead woman less than a dead man.

A single adult less than one who's married.

Black less than white, poor less than rich.

But the perfect victim is a white male professional,

40 years old, at the height of his earning power,

struck down in his prime...

and the most imperfect?

Well, in the calculus of personal injury law,

a dead child is worth the least of all.

A million dollars he turns down. One million dollars.

I don't believe that story for a second. It's true.

Come on! It's true. He turned down...

Hey, Eddie. Hey. How you doing?

Good. Do me a favor, will ya? Yeah.

Shut the fuck up. That's our banker over there keeping an eye on the collateral.

He doesn't know Jan turned down a million.

Oh, sorry. Sorry. Shh. Yeah.

Asshole.

- How's your headrest? - I want it up.

Up?

- How's that? Okay? - Okay.

Are you comfortable? Yeah. My button.

Oh, the button. Open? Open.

Here we go.

All rise.

This court is now in session.

The honorable Constance Mullen presiding.

Would you like some water?

Carney v. Massachusetts General Hospital.

Case number 81-27-25.

Attorneys, please state your appearance.

Randolph Woodside, Mass General.

Greg Monk, Massachusetts General Hospital.

Harout Beshlia, Mass General.

Jan Schlichtmann for Paul Carney.

Kevin Conway for Mr. Carney, Your Honor.

Mr. Schlichtmann, the court's ready for your opening statement.

Your Honor, if it please the court,

the parties involved have agreed to a settlement.

Hey.

Got a two-ton hammer

Got meat by the pound

I'm a hard work drivin' man

Six foot solid from the ground

Work my hammer from factory

Farmin', always wanna fight

Swallowed up some TV dinner

Swing my hammer strong at night

Personal injury law has a bad reputation.

They call us "ambulance chasers," "bottom feeders,"

"vultures who prey on the misfortunes of others".

Well, if that's true, why do I lie awake nights worrying about my clients?

Why does their pain become my pain?

I wish I could find some way not to empathize.

It'd be a lot easier.

When I was a schoolboy

Teacher said study hard as you can

It didn't make no difference

I'm just a hard work drivin' man

You're speaking with Jan Schlichtmann,

personal injury attorney, and, according to Boston Magazine...

Have you seen this? "One of Boston's 10 most eligible bachelors".

Senor.

Let's go back to the phones.

Woburn, you're on the air.

Hello, Mr. Schlichtmann, it's Anne Anderson.

Well, hello, Anne.

How are you? Very well. How are you? Sounds pretty.

Mmm-hmm. How come you never call me?

Well, believe me, if I had your number, I would call you.

You do have it. I do?

You have no idea who I am.

- Is this Ricky? - No.

See, my son died of leukemia two years ago, Mr. Schlichtmann.

Your firm is handling the case.

- We, we are? - Uh-huh.

The reason I'm calling you here is because

my calls to your offices have gone unreturned for the last several weeks now.

I'm sorry. What, what was your name? Uh, Anne.

Anne. Anne? Anderson.

Anne Anderson. I'm writing that down as we speak.

I'm gonna take care of this.

Hey, I have an idea.

Why don't you come up to Woburn one of these days

and actually meet a few of those people whose pain is your pain?

Jan?

Let me try and picture how this happened.

She called you. She cried.

You felt sorry for her, and you cried.

And now she's mad at me. Now that makes sense. This is a good case.

She's not crying now. I can tell you that. An orphan, but a good one.

Twelve deaths over 15 years from leukemia. Eight of them children.

Is that unusual? Apparently, statistically.

- It's a very small town. - This woman lost a child?

They think it has something to do with the city's drinking water,

which they say has always tasted funny.

What was she like before? I'd like to know that.

Do you wanna hear what it's about? No, I don't.

I'd, I'd like to hear about it.

Thank you, Kathy.

There's a report here from state inspectors

that says that the water from two city wells is contaminated,

or was before they shut them down, with something called...

I can't pronounce this.

Trichloroethyline?

Ethylene? Which the EPA lists as a probable carcinogen.

No, no, no. Let me stop you right there. There's more.

I don't need to hear it. From a financial standpoint,

I can tell you right now this is not a sound investment.

"Probable" is just a euphemism for "unproven".

To prove something like this, you need new medical research.

Is that the business we're in, the medical research business?

And, and you have to ask yourself, why is this an orphan?

Why has it been kicked from firm to firm before it ended up on your desk?

Gordon's right.

I mean, I can appreciate the theatrical value of several dead kids.

I mean, I like that. Obviously, that's good.

But that's all this case has going for it.

That's not enough.

I'll get rid of it.

I'll, uh... I'll just go up there, and...

And then she'll start to cry again, and then you'll start to cry again.

And then she'll be mad at me again, so I'll do it. I... I'll get rid of it.

Give it to me.

Thank you.

Here you go, sir. Thank you.

Drive careful, now. Oh, yeah.

Whee!

When I stand on my front porch,

I can see all the houses where children have died.

These are the, the Kanes,

the Toomeys, the Zonas,

the Robbins and the Aufieros.

Now, I wanna be clear.

I'm not interested in money. None of us are.

That's not why we're doing this. What we want

is to know what happened.

And we want an apology. From who?

From whoever did this.

I want somebody to come to my house, knock on the door and say, "We're responsible."

"We did this. We didn't mean it, but we did it and we're sorry."

But who is that?

Well, we don't know.

Mrs. Anderson.

Our firm is very small. Three attorneys. That's it.

Which means that we can only take on so many cases at once.

And we have to be very careful about the ones we do

because, frankly, we can't afford to lose.

Our clients pay nothing. We pay everything.

And we only get paid back if we win or settle. I know that.

No. You want an apology.

And there's nothing more I'd like to do than to get you that apology, but from who?

Who is going to apologize to you and pay me?

There has to be a defendant, and one with very deep pockets.

This is not an inexpensive case to try.

Uh, there's an old tannery out there.

A tannery.

And some other small factories.

I really wish I could help you, but I can't.

I'm sorry.

Maybe you could go out there for just a few minutes.

To the river, to the wells and take a look.

For what? What would that... What would that accomplish?

I do hope you find someone, and I am sorry.

Thank you very much. Drive carefully.

Oh, God damn it!

Shoes.

All clear!

Last ones on the train!

It was fate.

I was meant to get that ticket at that moment.

At that exact spot in the road.

Do you know who Beatrice is?

Peter Pan peanut butter,

Tropicana orange juice, Rosarita Mexican food,

Swiss Miss cocoa, Samsonite luggage, Playtex bras, Culligan water.

The list goes on. And the other one?

W. R. Grace. Chemicals and manufacturing with plants

in two dozen states, South America, Europe and Japan.

What's this? That's the ticket.

No. I've got the speeding ticket right here.

No, I got two speeding tickets.

Oh, it was a two-ticket town like that other place.

Exactly. You don't wanna take your Caddie there.

Kevin, this is a gold mine. You almost let it get away.

I almost let it get away.

Lawsuits are war. It's as simple as that.

And they begin the same way. With a declaration of war.

The complaint.

When you're a small firm and they're a big one,

steeped in history and wealth like they always are

with their Persian carpets on the floor

and their Harvard diplomas hanging on the walls,

it's easy to be intimidated.