procedures and litigation

This book left me with two very strong feelings:

First, I felt quite sickened and discouraged to learn in great detail just how easy it is for big business to skirt responsibility for committing such heinous and reckless acts as W.R. Grace and Beatrice so obviously did. This book is a brilliant illustration of how the system fails us. (Although, I must admit, I'm not 100% convinced that Schlictmann wasn't at least partly to blame. I think the big payoff was his ultimate motivation-and his greed was, finally, his downfall.)

I also felt amazed at how Harr was able to create such excitement around every motion filed, deposition taken and objection sustained or overruled. It was as compelling as any thriller I've ever read. I'm no legal expert, but I can see how this book would be extremely useful to any first-year law student. Harr's research is impeccable; he really brought the most minute legal and technical details to light in a straightforward and reasonably objective manner.

In closing, while W.R. Grace and Beatrice sleazed their way through this debacle without having to admit guilt, the Woburn families affected by this tragedy can feel somewhat vindicated in that anyone who reads A CIVIL ACTION will surely be convinced that Grace and Beatrice are truly at fault.

Inside account of lawsuit by eight middle-class families from industrial suburb against corporations owning nearby plants that allegedly contaminated ground water, leading to leukemia and other illnesses. The nonfiction style is spare and prosaic, but the situations are interesting enough to draw comparisons to legal fiction, and the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction quality lends the work poignancy and a realistic level of moral ambiguity.

This reviewer has practiced law in the area of civil litigation for 18 years, and can vouch for the realism of the book's depiction of lawyers and the legal system.

SPOILER ALERT: Schlictman was screwed by some bad judging (notably the bifurcation, and the failure to reopen the case against Beatrice), but his failure to inform his clients of the Beatrice pretrial offer was unpardonable -- the worst solecism of anything described in the story. Schlictman seemed to have a certain contempt for his own clients, e.g. their exclusion during trial, and the structure of the Grace settlement. He also got nine million in total settlement, which is about what the case was probably worth, and has himself at least partly to blame for the cost of the litigation.

Not that I would want anyone looking over my shoulder and criticizing the mistakes I make. But like the book says, it's easier to tear down than it is to build.

This book is a depressing lesson in the ways that our judicial system don't work. An adverserial system of justice, by its very nature, leads not to an inquiry into the truth but instead to a polarized system where each side is fighting for its own side and disinterested in the merits of its opposition.

While this book was, in many ways, a real downer, it was also a fascinating chronicle of litigation. I was immediately drawn in my the families' tragedies, Schlichtmann's flawed but good-hearted optimism, and the interaction between the lawyers and the judge. As Schlichtmann swirled deeper into debt, I found it impossible not to feel a growing sense of desparation along with him. The ending is bitterly disappointing, but in many ways the families eventually got what they wanted with subsequent EPA actions and criminal prosecutions.

My husband and I are both attorneys. Last year, he was involved in a case in which the outcome was simply criminal. I felt I could relate in a deeper sense to the drama in A Civil Action after experiencing such a travesty of justice firsthand. We have to work within the confines of the flawed legal system that exists now, but we must accept that it is far from perfect. Judges and juries--as humans--get things wrong all the time. This book, in gripping prose, demonstrates this basic fact of life in all too vivid of detail.