A Civil Action (Paperback)

by Jonathan Harr (Author) "The lawyer Jan Schlichtmann was awakened by the telephone at eight-thirty on a Saturday morning in mid-July..." (more)
Key Phrases: hotel fire case, tannery property, tannery sludge, Civil Action, Judge Skinner, Uncle Pete (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
In America, when somebody does you wrong, you take 'em to court. W. R. Grace and Beatrice Foods had been dumping a cancer-causing industrial solvent into the water table of Woburn, Massachusetts, for years; in 1981, the families of eight leukemia victims sued. However, A Civil Action demonstrates powerfully that--even with the families' hotshot lawyers and the evidence on their side--justice is elusive, particularly when it involves malfeasance by megacorporations. Much of the legal infighting can cause the eyes to glaze. But the story is saved by great characters: the flawed, flamboyant Jan Schlichtmann and his group of bulldogs for the prosecution; Jerome Facher, the enigmatic lawyer for Beatrice, who proves to be more than a match; John J. Riley, the duplicitous, porcine tannery owner; and a host of others. It's impossible not to feel the drama of this methodical book, impossible not to grieve for the parents who lost children, and impossible not to share Schlichtmann's desperation as he runs out of money. A Civil Action reads like one long advertisement for a few well-placed Molotov cocktails. (But that wouldn't make for a very long book, now would it?)

From Publishers Weekly
This tale of a somewhat quixotic quest by an idealistic young lawyer concerns his efforts to secure damages from two corporate giants, Beatrice Foods and W.R. Grace, for allegedly polluting the water in Woburn, Mass., a Boston suburb, with carcinogens. Jan Schlichtmann had hoped that a victory would send a message to the boardrooms of America and felt that the cluster of leukemia victims in Woburn (the disease had claimed the lives of at least six children) guaranteed his success. But he reckoned without certain developments: first, the case went to a federal court, a less sympathetic venue for damage suits than state courts; second, the trial judge appears to have been unsympathetic to his case; third, at least one of the defense witnesses lied; four, defense attorneys evidently failed to deliver all relevant documents to Schlichtmann's team. The case against Beatrice was thrown out, and the plaintiffs accepted a settlement of $8 million from Grace. Personally bankrupt, Schlichtmann considered himself a failure. Former New England Monthly staffer Harr has told the story expertly, although more exhaustively than most readers may wish. Author tour; movie rights to Disney.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 502 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (August 27, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679772677
• ISBN-13: 978-0679772675
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (345 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,282 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Broader questions, August 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: A Civil Action (Hardcover)

This case is fundamentally about responsibility. Corporations by design exist to conduct business with a much higher degree of protection than that afforded to a private citizen. Even if a company is found guilty of anything, the fines imposed are absorbed by laying off workers and the legal fees ultimately passed back to the customer. If an employee observes questionable activity in the company they risk alienation from peers, blocked career growth, or even termination by 'making waves' in the organization. If an outside agency like EPA comes in, they must counterweigh potential layoffs to any fines they might impose. A hidden sleeping giant in regulating corporation responsibility might be insurers of the business, who stand to lose large sums of money in liability cases. In examining this case, one might wonder if there is a relationship between environmental pollution and the ultimate handling of the cleanup. If companies pollute and the EPA ultimately comes in, dispenses funds to orchestrate the cleanup, and remediation contractors are called in, don't the contractors for EPA have a ready business source? Could some of the biggest polluters be friendly to the cleanup companies with which the EPA contracts?

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Collateral damage, May 8, 2002

By A Customer

Jan Schlictmann has paid a personal and professional price in this case as has Ken Grant, a former safety/environmental man for Grace Co. Since this book came out, Grant has been blackballed from employment in Massachusetts and eventually forced into bankruptcy and homelessness. Grant was orphaned and raised in state care and later became active in many volunteer organizations in Massachusetts. When this book came out he was fired and later driven from Massachusetts through circumstance and hostile forces.Perhaps Grant and Schlictmann should meet.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An attempt to bring closure to a complex case, May 12, 2000

By A Customer

In the early 1960s, NASA was looking to put a research center in Woburn that may have been perceived as competition for funding for New England military bases, like the Boston Navy Yard.The land around the area mentioned by this book was quite controversial and there were many more than 6-8 families affected by cancer in the wake of pollution of the local groundwater. It could have been stopped with the implementation of the Slichter Act, designed for public safety. This book highlights one controversial case involving 3 major companies,WR Grace the primary one along with Beatrice foods. Grace is a company that had at one time a former national security advisor (Zbignew Brezinski), CIA officer (Al Fiers) and Peter Lynch of Fidelity Investments (newspapers listed this info)...