A Civil Action

Rating:
Summary: Excellent.
Review: This is a very well-written account of a lawsuit filed by eight families in Woburn, MA against two large corporations that they believed contaminated their drinking water with carcinogens, leading to the deaths of several children from leukemia.

The characters are at least as vivid as any in fiction, and the story is detailed in its coverage of the legal maneuvering and the law itself. (Some people may find this boring, but it is integral to the plot, and to me it was interesting.) At the outset of the book, I had trouble believing that I would be sympathetic to an extravagant personal injury lawyer operating in the go-go eighties, but the author does such a good job of portraying Jan Schlichtmann, the counsel for the plaintiffs, that you share his exhaustion by the end of the book.

"A Civil Action" is a vivid example of the differences between justice and law, and it may well leave you outraged. It is, in any case, a very solid read.

Rating:
Summary: A definite page-turner!
Review: I don't know why this book isn't on the New York Times bestseller list. There can be only one reason it's not there; the word isn't out YET. If you're a John Grisham fan, you'll treasure this read AND it's a true story! The author spent eight years following this case that began with a cluster of leukemia cases that popped up in Woburn, Massachusetts in the late seventies. The plaintiffs think the illnesses came from a contamination of the drinking water with TCE, trichloroethylene. Not much more can be said without giving away the resolution, but along the way you'll be amazed (and furious) at the personalities; the federal judge, the young, cocky, self-assured plaintiffs' attorney, Joel Schlichtmann, and his powerful adversaries, the attorneys for the big-monied corporate defendants. The author effectively draws you into the story with his perceptive prose and his clear understanding of the legal subtleties involved. He knows just where to pick you up and drop you off, chapter by chapter. Don't miss this one, but beware, once you start reading, you'll be hooked

Rating:
Summary: Unknown soldier
Review: Jan Schlictmann, Anne Anderson, the Gamaches and all of the families in this book and beyond are not the only ones who were seriously impacted by this case. Look at what happened to 'GK ', a longtime former Woburn resident who was forced to leave Massachusetts under questionable circumstances...
GK was a small child in Woburn in the 1960s. Bounced from family to family,handicapped, abused and severely neglected, GK had been treated out of state for years,living in a hospital with no visitors with a suspicious diagnosis prior to coming
back to Woburn.From then he was treated at the same hospitals,lived in the same neighborhoods as the families mentioned in this book, appeared in Woburn district court, where the first complaints of water problems emerged and which file was later refused his review without reason. When this book came out, GK worked for Grace Co. in Cambridge,Mass. and was suddenly discharged even though an excellent job is said to have been done. Medical records began disappearing without explanation from the hospitals the cancer-diagnosed children were treated in, and a former guardian who had arranged for his new social security number began acting suspiciously.
Symptoms of extreme monitoring and control began showing themselves, as GK became a target of increased audits, questionable activity at banks such as Fleet and Citizens, phone and communications tampering, threatening phone calls and being put under surveillance (including a possible FBI agent out of Tennessee, where Barry Mawn worked- Mawn is a Woburn native). Some speculated that mistaken identity had occurred, others that the federal government was waging war on a young child who simply put, survived a real tragedy in Woburn,Mass. Others speculated that a long term goal of erasing GK's existence was underway, propelled by Harr's book and a prior newspaper article detailing GK's search for his family roots.
In the 1980s GK worked for a small service firm allegedly under the control of a New Jersey parent entity. This company routinely dumped toxic chemicals on the ground in Woburn and when GK objected to the policy, GK was forced to resign or be fired. Four to six years later, a man bearing the name of the sole officer of the parent to the service firm out of New Jersey was introduced to GK by a mutual friend. Subsequent research by GK many years later revealed that his 'friend' bore the same name as the chief officer of the parent company and lived in Massachusetts just as that executive allegedly did. This 'friend' suddenly became quite hostile when Harr's book came out and blamed GK for 'turning' on Grace Co. Additionally, the 'friend' introduced GK to an alleged private investigator linked to a Reading,Mass attorney who later transferred to a Winchester,Mass firm(Winchester was impacted by the Aberjona River) friend ostensibly to help GK figure out what was going on. This investigator it was later learned had ties to a private school in Woburn taught by a nun probably linked to the boy.

Rating:
Summary: A Book that Makes a Difference
Review: A Civil Action is the true story of the case against the W.R. Grace Company and Beatrice Foods regarding water pollution in Woburn Massachusetts in the 1980s. Several children had died from Leukemia and many families had serious health problems.

There's more to a case than just the trial. There are dispositions and fact finding and motions and counter-motions and appeals and financial considerations and constant frustrations. There are things to learn about water, soil, geology, medicine. Facts are not always clear or written in stone. There are experts who disagree. Bills to pay. Worthy combatants. And a judge whose word is God and whose judgment is questionable.

The writer, Johnathan Harr, was with this case from the beginning. He sat in on the meetings with the families whose children had died. He was present at all the dispositions and motions. He researched all technical aspects. And, later, interviewed everyone including the jurors, office staff, opposing attorneys, as well as wives and lovers. He traveled with the lawyer, Jan Schlichtmann and his partners to their negotiation meetings, spent much time in their offices, shared meals and hours of discussion and then more discussion.

He got it all. The personalities. The issues. The facts. And he wrote a book that really makes a difference in the world. Like it or not, the issue of environmental pollution is here to stay. We need to understand it. And his skill at writing made it more fascinating than any novel. Highest accolades to the writer. I give this book my highest recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: Fiction, Schmiction -- Read This Book
Review: Jonathan Harr's twenty-year chronicle of the crests and troughs of "A Civil Action", which pits small town Americans against Big Business industries, ably wears many hats: It depicts the emotional drama of the families of a cluster of leukemia victims. (Try to keep a dry eye over the story of Robbie Robbins' dying declaration to his mother, "We'll meet in the back left corner of heaven.") It serves as a full-blown, but altogether captivating, civics lesson, a step-by-step narrative of a high-profile, high-stakes civil case from the decision to sue to final judgment. Even as a work of non-fiction, it has all the suspense and high drama of a Grisham novel (at least the good ones -- see my review of "The Street Lawyer", August 25, 1998). Some may feel that the book lends to the public fervor that the American Civil Justice system is neither civil nor just. But "A Civil Action" is not a wholesale indictment of the American legal system. Like true great story-telling, it sets forth the facts and lets you be the judge.

Although told primarily from the perspective of the Plaintiffs' lawyer, Jan Schlichtmann, Mr. Harr does not attempt to paint Mr. Schlichtmann as an "Atticus Finch-like" ubermensch, fighting for all that is just and good. Rather, he appears to be motivated less by the tragic circumstances of his clients than by a titanic ego and the quest for the ultimate contingency fee. He depicted as extravagent and superficial. But at the same time, he goes for broke (quite literally) for his clients. The book taps into the raw frustration a trial attorney must experience in endeavoring to find positive proof for what on its face appears to be an elementary proposition -- that an anomolous number of people in a small Massachusetts town contracted leukemia due to the enviromental hazards created by industries upstream.

I cannot recommend this book enough, as both a lawyer and a lover of literature.

Rating:
Summary: Masterpeice
Review: Brilliant, enlightening, enteraining, and mindful work presented here by Jonathan Harr. Harr manages to consume you in the lives of all the characters of this book. The funny thing about the book is that it doesn't move you vicserally about changing the enviroment for the good, but moves you in a very cerebral way.

I don't care one way or another about the enviroment and all those Greenpeace annoying little idiots. I do care about humanity and Harr shows it here. This is a must read.

Rating:
Summary: Unknown soldier
Review: In the early to mid-1990s, a man named Ken Grant worked as a safety and environmental professional with Grace Co. Grant grew up in Woburn and surrounding communities but was too young to recall the emergence of this tragedy. Around the time this book was published, following a substantial newspaper report of his search for his family roots as well as the enigmatic refusal of the Woburn District Court to allow him to review child custody records (in which he was involved and which occurred about the time the epidemic was making its appearance in the same local court), Grant was suddenly discharged from Grace. Life became Hell for Grant after this in every way. But there was a precedent...
Fifteen years before this book, another man going by the same name living in Woburn across town appeared and began using this common name to go AWOL from the Army, and perhaps much more as the fallout came back to the Ken Grant who was a toddler when the early symptoms of an environmental tragedy surfaced. Over the next 15-20 years from time to time this other person touched in on Ken's life, contacting his workplaces, moving to where he moved, and even later attending the same church at the same time Ken began attending. It appeared Ken was being monitored long term or that someone else was representing himself to be Ken but was not. Jump ahead to when this book was released...
Grant,among other things, worked on a chemical database in a joint venture between Corbus software of Kennett Square, PA and Grace Co. This software program was to track chemicals from the time they entered until the time they left the facility. After Grant was fired inexplicably, Fleet Bank posted a brief brochure detailing an experimental software package that used a logical design very similar to that used by the chemical software. Around this time Grant suddenly had his account levied by the IRS without prior notice as well as inexplicable problems never explained or resolved to this day. Was the software designed for a specific purpose appropriated then adapted for a use inconsistent with its original intent?
Following Grant's sudden discharge, on the Omnitech International website, a 'litigation preparation service' among other things, was a study involving a database being tested in the medical and construction industries, both of which Grant was employed in and in which there was continuity between the companies. Prior to this Grant had been referred by a "friend" to an alleged 'private investigator' who graciously offered services to help him find out what was going on and who it turns frequented the Omnitech website and had family ties to Woburn when the epidemic emerged .

Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: A fast-moving chronology of a lawyer representing a community against corporate pollutors. Moving, convincing, and makes one hesitate to drink tap water.

Rating:
Summary: A Legal Thriller?
Review: This is one of the best non-fiction books I've read in a long time. It was just as thrilling as any Grisham novel, as informative as a text book and extremely well written. I watched the movis a couple years ago and new the basic premise of the story, but Harr does a marvelous job of building momentum throughout the book and I could not stop reading the book at night. It was just too exciting. There was excellent information about legal work, environmental catastrophes and the greater Boston area (for which I will admit a certain fondness). I learned a lot from the novel and got excited about the law, which is not an easy feat. I would recommend this book to anyone, but aspiring lawyers, environmentalists and people interested in dramas will be particularly fascinated. I cannot recommend this book highly enough--it is well worth the purchase price.

Rating:
Summary: True story of what shouldn't have happened
Review: This book is a perfect real-life example of how litigation in America's modern judicial system can squeeze the life and money out of the lawyers and clients they represent without ever reaching the truth. This book is worth the read, however. Readers can learn a lot from this book - especially what not to do in negotiations and the importance of using the threat of filing a suit as bargaining power to settle early. The plaintiffs lawyer, Jan Schlitchman, was a hard-working lawyer that became caught up in greed and forgot many times to ask what the plaintiffs (all of whom lost children to a disease linked to contaminated groundwater in a town north of Boston) what they really were seeking from the suit and from the defendants. I agree with many of the other reveiwers that this book reads like fiction. It's almost too bad it isn't.