A Civil Action is a story about a personal injury case involving the people of Woburn, Massachusetts. This book is based on a true story told from the plaintiff lawyers perspective. This book dramatizes a complex environmental trial in 1986 in Woburn, Massachusetts. This was a lawsuit against two corporate companies located in Woburn. The companies were accused of contaminating municipal water wells, which was thought to have contributed to a series of tragic deaths by a means that, to this day, science has not been able to identify or explain.In the early 1980s, a leukemia cluster was identified in the Massachusetts town of Woburn. Three companies, including W.R. Grace & Co., were accused of contaminating drinking water and causing illnesses. This tragedy had a great impact on the families of Woburn. Many people had gotten sick due to the long effects of using the contaminated water, which was believed to contain TCE, a harmful chemical that may have leaked into the water wells g and h.Jan Shlichtmann was the plaintiffs attorney who had put everything he had, including his reputation on the line for this case. Jan Shlichtmann was a smart and became a successful lawyer and managed to open up his own firm. Shlichtmann had been doing very well till he came across the Woburn case. This case was put aside for a while until Shlichtmann had decided he was going to risk everything on this case. Unfortunately, he lost the case after a long tough battle, after that he decided to stop practicing law. However, this was a true story and many people of Woburn had suffered due to the contaminated water. Many of the residents had died.There are agencies, which regulate and control contamination caused by corporate companies. The EPA is one of those agencies. It stands for Environmental Protection Agency. This agency played a major role in the Woburn case. The EPA conducts studies, determines cleanup remedies and identifies parties liable under the ...
