Essays on A Civil Action

Introduction

There are a couple of important fundamental differences between a criminal action and a civil action. One of the most apparent differences is the nature of the cause of action underlying the suit. As its name denotes, a criminal action is derived from a past crime that has been committed. A civil action, on the other hand, does not involve a crime, but rather a private wrong to an individual or a group of individuals. Another fundamental distinction between a criminal and civil action is that the parties go to the court. In a criminal action, the prosecution represents ...

Part A:

The case that was tried in “A Civil Action” pertained to a case that was based on events that happened in Woburn, Massachusetts, (A Civil Action). The events that led up to the court case were the fact that six families filed suit against W.R. Grace & Co. due to the fact that their chemical plant that manufactured food-processing equipment had improper disposal of toxic chemicals that polluted the local ground water that flowed to the two local municipal wells, (A Civil Action). This improper disposal of these chemicals was believed to cause leukemia for several local residents, (A Civil ...

Introduction

There are some important fundamental differences between a criminal action and a civil action. One of the most ostensible differences is the nature of the cause of action underlying the suit. As its name denotes, a criminal action is derived from a past crime that has been committed. A civil action, on the other hand, does not involve a crime, but rather a private wrong to an individual or group of individuals. Another key distinction between criminal and civil action is the parties bringing the suit. In a criminal action, the prosecution represents the people and presents the case ...

An accident can be described as an undesirable event that could have been prevented, had the contributing factors to the event been identified and action taken to prevent it: these could be human factors, organisational factors, or predisposing factors. The same can be said of the events leading to the litigation sought by the residents of Woburn, Massachusetts in the USA. Approximately 50 years ago, the residents complained continuously of foul tasting waters (due to high concentrations of manganese and iron making it undrinkable), between the years 1964 and 1979, supplied by the municipal wells. The situation was further ...

Movie Review: A Civil Action

Movie Review: A Civil Action Based on a novel of Jonathan Harr, this movie called “A Civil Action” depicts the story of two lawyers who are at loggerheads—Jan Schlichtmann (John Travolta) and Jerome Facher (Robert Duvall). The issue revolves around the death of 12 children who suffered from leukemia. In this movie, Jan Schlichtmann contends that the death of the 12 children could be attributed to the pollution caused by the two major corporations called W. R. Grace and Beatrice. However, Jerome Facher takes the opposite side, and presents his counterarguments against Schlichtmann that neither the pollution nor ...

Kenneth Ravenel v. Fredrick L. Burnett (Case study) Kenneth Ravenel v. Fredrick L. Burnett (Case study) Under the field of criminal law, the case, Kenneth RAVENEL v. Fredrick L. BURNETT [2070401], September 26, 2008, under the Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, exemplifies conflict resolution. As an example, it entailed the requisite steps in which conflict may be resolved, in addition to the practicability of their applications. The case in point pertained to the claim by Burnett that Ravenel had threatened him with malicious harm, because of suspecting the former of being in an affair with his ...

(1).Typically, anyone one who has been injured because of the negligence of another is entitled to recover two types of damages, compensatory damages and punitive damages. Compensatory damages are meant to compensate for the emotional, financial, and physical damage that the victim has suffered. There are two types of compensatory damages, monetary losses (financial losses), and non-monetary losses (pain and suffering caused by injury, etc.). Punitive damages are meant to punish the person who has caused the injury, and these damages are only awarded under special circumstances. It is apparent that the damages that a plaintiff in a personal injury ...

In A Civil Action, the small city of Woburn, Massachusetts is plagued by water contamination that leads to higher instances of leukemia in its children. When one child is diagnosed, the mother, Anne Anderson, investigates this correlation, eventually bringing in a lawyer to deal with the myriad companies who are allegedly responsible for these contaminants. Over the course of the case and the book, these high-powered companies attempt to crush this small, grassroots rebellion against their corporate might, but are thwarted by an increasingly dedicated lawyer and his convictions. In this paper, we will examine a number of subjects related to ...