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Summary: should be required reading for anyone entering law school
Review: This is not only a fantastic, fast paced and compelling read, but it is also a careful lesson and a reminder that drive and determination must be tempered with patience and method.
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Summary: Don't let new Hollywood cover throw you!
Review: "A Civil Action" is the most compelling novel that I have read in the past six months. I simply could not put it down. The trial details are so painstakingly outlined that Harr makes you feel like you are right there in the courtroom. If you are from Boston, as I am, you will find that descriptions of familiar areas make this book even more fun to read. I had never read a Grisham novel before reading this and I read "The Street Lawyer" right afterward, thinking it would be as gripping - think again. You will never pick up another Grisham novel after reading this. To the credit of the film-makers, the movie wasn't half bad either, but read the book first!
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Summary: A powerful novel that never wants to be put down.
Review: A Civil Action is a very powerful novel about death, contamination, and legal business. Jan Schlichtman, the main lawyer, is given a case about contamination of two Woburn wells. Jan Schlichtman is a very complicated man. Although he is very conceded, he is very friendly and out-going. He has many good ideas due to his intelligence. He is not sure whether or not to invest in the case mainly because at first it does not seem to have very much potential. He does end up taking the case, but it is much more work than he planned on having. I really like this novel. It is very well written. The way the author describes the characters is phenomenal. I always knew exactly what the character was thinking, his or her physical features, and his or her personal features. I also like this book because the actual story is not fictitious, and is a very interesting plot. As said in the one-line grabber, this book is very fast moving, and I never wanted to put it down.
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Summary: horrible book
Review: This book was really bad. It was very boring and tedious and slow mooving. It was very bad writed and the writed did a bad job. don't read the book
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Summary: Justice is not served
Review: Your children and many in the nearby community are developing Lukemia. You think there might be something or some entity reponsible for this. A young lawyer takes the case, and sacrifices everything to secure compensation or at least an appology from the companies responsible for poisoning those children. Jan Schlichtmann is the lawyer who spear heads this epic battle between the innocent victims and the corporations responsible for polluting the ground water, which caused this unthinkable tradgedy. The battle rages on for years, the judge doesn't seem quite on the up n' up, Jan pours his heart, his life, and his financial well being in to this case. It's a roller coaster ride the entire way through, and and proof that money and the legal system can get in the way of serving justice.
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Summary: A Civil Action
Review: I'm in high school, and this is the best book I have read
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Summary: A Story Even a Lawyer Can Love
Review: Okay, I admit it. I'm a lawyer and Grisham's and Thurow's fantasies about surprise witnesses and dark conspiracies drive me nuts. A Civil Action is the real deal. This is what toxic tort practice is, a war of attrition fought in a battlefield characterized by mountains of paper, prejudiced judges, clients with unrealistic expectations and, above all, greed. Harr's book is a masterpiece and one of the best examples of legal reporting I've ever seen. Time and time again, I would put the book down and wonder how he could could capture the peril of environmental lawyering so well. He must have read my mail. A great book.
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Summary: A Civil Action
Review: This legal thriller, A Civil Action, recounts the events of a large case during the eighties. It is a story that is pieced together by a notable legal writer, Jonathan Harr. During the trial and before during the discovery period he follows the lawyers, who play apart of the case, and the eight families who were injured and filed suit against two major national corporations. The novel begins be explaining the situation the families all go through. In each of the families at least one family member is diagnosed with leukemia, a rare and very dangerous disease. The families all meet one way or another through there connection to leukemia. They learn much about leukemia and decide that the cause for their family member's illness is the water from their hometown in Woburn, Massachusetts. Through the help and friendship of a local reverend the families decide to bring their problems to court. They hire a firm with great respect in Boston, which lends a young, bigheaded lawyer named Jan Schlichtmann. At first believes that Woburn is to confusing and to expensive, but quickly he changes his mind, he is drawn into the case. As the story progresses Schlichtmann faces terrible financial and emotional problems. He starts spending every breath on the case. His lawfirm goes through a horrible downfall and they go deep into debt. The strain of the case also eventually affects Schlichtmann mentally. He becomes trapped by the case constantly searching for a way out but always returning to it. Harr was extremely detailed throughout the book, almost to the point of confusion. He immerses the reader, not only with legal terms and procedures but scientific terms dealing with groundwater pollution and medical terms dealing with leukemia and other illnesses caused by the water. His style is very precise, he writes the book as if writing a legal brief to a judge. He presents the facts very straightforward to try and keep the reader in the story. He retells the story of the legal thriller with extreme accuracy, and he presents no bias against either side of the case. He lets the reader make his or her own opinions of the lawyers and families which play apart of the incredible story. He even explains the how the confusing information played a role in the decision making of the jury. Once you get past the confusing period of discovery and into the trial the story flows with almost no hitch's keeping to a quick pace. The author, Jonathan Harr, has recreated one of the most amazing trials in the last fifty years with extremely precise accuracy, so I congratulate him and recommend readers to give the book a chance and they will most likely enjoy it.
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Summary: Good view of the law.
Review: As a first year law student I am required to take a class on Civil Procedure, which deals with the mechanics of civil litigation, at my school. Like many schools, mine is using Harr's "A Civil Action" to show students how the civil process works. Why? Because it is such a rare thing indeed to see a book so completely immerse the reader into the world of lawsuits and litigation. "A Civil Action" deals with a lawsuit filed by eight families in Woburn, Massachusetts against two powerful corporations, WR Grace and Beatrice Foods. The ensuing battle, which lasted for years, was a brutal affair for both sides. The lawyers on both sides worked long and hard to represent their clients. The outcome pleased few involved, prompting questions about the adequacy of our legal system. Harr is a journalist, so many of the legal complexities of the case are lost on him. However as a narrative "A Civil Action" is brilliant. As a law student I throughly enjoyed the fact that the reader was able to go so deeply into a world that I myself will hopefully join one day. On the balance, a pretty darn good book.
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Summary: Does Justice Live On?
Review: Anand Dharan Ms. Smith English I-7 January 6, 2000 One bleak night, Jan Schlichtmann wakes up to the sound of a sheriff, having come at last to repossess Schlichtmann's beautiful black Porsche. At this point, Schlichtmann could care less; buried in debt and struggling to fend off insurance companies, defense attorneys, and a cold, sadistic judge, the loss of his car is irrelevant in the scheme of things. As he looks ahead, all he can see is a long, winding trial; a trial to decide a case that he should have never taken on nearly a decade ago. Like many dramas, Jonathan Harr's A Civil Action, a legal thriller about the elusiveness of justice, begins in medias res, when Jan Schlichtmann, the plaintiff attorney for a group of disheartened, working-class families, has his car repossessed for failing to pay the bills; he is bankrupt, we are told, because of the case he is working on. By transporting us into the middle of things, Harr gives the reader something to think about as he flashes back to the beginning of the fiasco. Harr continues with an account of the unusual leukemia incidences in Woburn, Massachusetts, a working class suburb that was once dominated by the plants of two industrial behemoths: W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods. Grace and Beatrice are both accused of dumping the toxin trichloroethylene (TCE) into the city's water wells, causing abnormally high rates of acute lymphocytic leukemia. His description, although long, is hooking, and the reader soon finds himself immersed in the Woburn scenario, living the lives of Ann Anderson, Jan Schlichtmann, and a dozen other characters who know that the fate of the Woburn case will make or break their careers. Although the introduction is well-written and informative, there are times when the medical reports, the doctor names, and the word "trichloroethylene" became all too tiresome. The description alone was like a book, the story of the downfall of a little town in Massachusetts. But no, we are only at the threshold of things, and this is where the trouble begins. Having been drafted by the citizens of Woburn, Jan Schlichtmann, an affluent young lawyer with a Porsche, Dmitri suits, and silk ties, with several big wins under his name, makes the Woburn leukemia case the sole responsibility of his firm, Schlichtmann, Conway, and Crowley. He and his assistants soon find themselves in the midst of bureaucratic procedures, with the actual trial away in the distance. It certainly feels away in the distance; Rather than add zest to the story, Harr virtually regurgitates a transcript of the court motions and dialogues between Schlichtmann, his partners, the defense attorneys, and Judge Skinner. Like a revolving camera, the plot traces Schlichtmann, everyday, from his condominium to work, to the court, to lunch, to his other appointments, ad nauseam. For several chapters - nearly two hundred pages - there is an urge to skim through the transcript-like precision, almost-meaningless events, and endless swear words. When the story finally becomes more interesting, we are hit with the most depressing part of the story, and alas, the end is upon us. What a dismal ending! Great story plot, great description, incredible research, good hooks...snip the introns and splice together the juicy exons, and presto...a true masterpiece of nonfiction drama. My rating: 7 thumbs up.
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