a civil action by jonathan harr audiobook

Defense lawyers, however, are focused on maneuvers to detract and ultimately thwart the proceedings, often successfully doing so. To this end, Schlichtmann spends over two million dollars for medical and geological reports and documents, employing experts at each phase of trial preparation. He chronicles his time-consuming, laborious and horribly expensive preparation for what he believes will be a landmark case, sending a message to corporate boardrooms and netting the plaintiffs and himself huge compensatory and punitive damage awards. Most of the story is recounted through the eyes of Jan Schlichtmann, attorney for the plaintiffs.

Anne's research eventually evolves into a civil suit, on the part of many affected families, against two large corporations, Beatrice Foods and Grace Chemical, with the contention that they have contaminated the wells with a carcinogen, specifically trichloroethylene (TCE).Īuthor Jonathan Harr traces the course of this civil action through the history of corporate dumping activities, backgrounds of all parties, the discovery and deposition phases, the trial itself, the verdict and, ultimately, settlement negotiations and appeals. One common environmental factor for all of these children is the water, pumped from Wells G and H, which has been a subject of complaint and controversy for some time, due to foul odor, taste, and color.

When Anne Anderson discovers that her three-year old son has leukemia, she embarks on a quest for its cause, only to discover what constitutes a childhood leukemia cluster in her small town just north of Boston. Children in Woburn, Massachusetts are getting sick - terribly sick.

A civil action by jonathan harr audiobook