A Civil Action: 1. Money isn’t always the primary focus. 2. Put in full effort. 3. Dumping hazardous materials in water leads to danger. Satisfaction and happiness for a majority of people is gained by money. In the 1998 film A Civil Action, Anne Anderson wanted an apology from someone that had been involved in the dumping in the river. Because of companies dumping toxic materials into the water, Anne’s son became severely ill and resulted in his life ending shortly. Anne originally called Jan to make this desired apology happen. Except Jan didn’t understand that getting an apology will settle for what she and many other families have lost. Instead he attempts to bribe them with money on various accounts. The mind of a lawyer is primarily money no matter what the case involves. When he was confronted by the group of saddened families he only thought money would solve the problem because each of them would have thousands of dollars. Anne, as well as the other families, declined Jan and his colleagues. Once the families finally got their apology along with the shutdown of the toxic ...
Damages are a fundamental principle in the American legal system. However, a number of recent cases in the United States have sparked a debate on the issue, the most famous one being the “hot coffee lawsuit”1. In 1994, Stella Liebeck bought coffee at a McDonald’s restaurant, spilt it, and was severely burnt. She sued the McDonald’s company, received $160,000 in compensatory damages, and $2.9 million in punitive damages. A judge then reduced the punitive damages to $480,000. The final out-of-court settlement was of approximately $500,000. For many, this case is frivolous (meaning that the plaintiff’s prospects of being successful were low or inexistent), but it really highlights the question of excessive punitive damages compared to the damage suffered and its causes.
The novel Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer has a very in-depth conflict that is showcased all throughout the novel. In Theo's community, there is a high-profile murder trial about to begin. Mr. Pete Duffy, a wealthy business man, is accused of murdering his wife Myra Duffy. The prosecutors have the idea that Mr. Duffy did it for the one million dollar insurance policy he took out on his wife earlier, however they have no proof to support this accusation (Grisham 53). The defendants do however have the proof that no one saw the murder, for all everyone knew, Mr. Duffy was playing his daily round of golf at the golf course right by his house. As the trial moved on, the jury was starting to lean towards letting Mr. Duffy walk a free man. To this point, there has been no proof to support the prosecutors statements that Mr. Duffy killed h...
I sat across from Helen and watched as she got her packet while I got a single piece of paper. It only took one page to say “I’m sorry, but your writing was not selected.” Helen’s packet took multiple pages to reminder her parents to sign their permission for the publishing of her essay. Helen’s story got in and mind didn’t. In retrospect, mine didn’t deserve to get in. Why? In an overzealous state to write an epic, I took what was originally 2 pages and turned it into six pages of unnecessary details, overcomplicated world structure, and random vocabulary in a classic freshman attempt to sound intelligent. It didn’t work.
Within the recent years there has been many changes occurring in our nation that had never happened before. Well defined social understandings such as gender, race, sexually as well as other self-identifying terms that had been previously well understood were starting to change and evolve, no longer fitting the social mold that it once had. A great illustration for my previous statement of change can be seen in the article “The Year We Obsessed Over Identity” by Wesley Morris, which highlights specific major events that had occurred in recent years till two thousand and fifteen. One case discussed in the article was the idea that race was defined by your skin color and other biological characteristics that landed
Justice was dilatory, expensive, uncertain, and remote. To the rich it was a costly lottery: to the poor a denial of right, or certain ruin. The class who might profit most by its dark mysteries were the lawyers themselves. (Plucknett 73)
Both passages concern the same topic, the Okefenokee Swamp. Yet, through the use of various techniques, the depictions of the swamp are entirely different. While Passage 1 relies on simplicity and admiration to publicize the swamp, Passage 2 uses explicitness and disgust to emphasize the discomfort the swamp brings to visitors.
The story takes place in St. Andrew Valley, an ordinary town with not much in it. Jason and his friend look for snails sometimes, exploring rivers and basically anywhere with moisture. Jason attends Teen Power Outreach sessions held in the church basement every Thursday because his mom forces him to. He also goes to mass every Sunday at the Church of the Good Shepard. One day he has a revelation while under the water tower: water is life. After making a new religion centered around the water tower, he recruits disciples and eventually they go to the top, where things go badly. They swim in the reservoir and then Henry falls off and lands on the catwalk, breaking many bones. Afterwords they get arrested and Jason goes to jail for six hours until his dad bails him out. Henry goes to St. Theresa's Hospital. Near the end of the book, Jason and his friends go to the mall, where he gets hit in the head with a crutch, then hits his head on the floor and gets a mild concussion and seven stitches. The story ends with Jason in the hospital, reflecting on the events of the book.
Many have tried to use money on several occasions to help or solve a situation, however this has been noted to be not very effective. Often times, people assume that by giving heaping amounts of money to an issue, they will solve it. This is not the case. However, there is an issue with this.
How could a successful lawyer at a firm who seems to have it all still suffer while having a strong disconnect with his family? In “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, he uses the protagonist Ivan as irony for the quote, “Bad things often happen to good people”. The novel describes how as a child Ivan was very smart, likeable, and funny and rarely ever got into trouble.
people in these 21st century society wonder, “When is Justice to be done?” For district attorneys,
You have to understand and know what you are passionate about before you can drive yourself forward and achieve your goals. Many people in life have a reason why they do not drink bleach. For me, I have two reasons why I do not want to try bleach. Number one: it probably does not taste very good; number two: I have a goal. That goal is to write this amazing paper, to ask Cheyenne out, and to go into the military to make the world a safer place. I have many goals and I bet you do to. That hot dude or chick sitting in this class probably does not like you, but you have to be ambitious to accomplish your goals, you may have to take risks. I have learned this year that you have to break out of your shell and go accomplish something. You may not
English 101 is one of the most common college courses in the world. When I enrolled in the class, I was bothered that I would have spend forty hours in a freshman writing class; along with at least another forty hours throughout the semester writing for the class. What surprised me, was that when I began writing my essays I was not annoyed or bothered; I actually enjoyed the assignments. Most importantly, throughout the course of the semester, I have become a better writer and have ultimately met the course goals of English 101.
In the film, A Civil Action, Trial Procedure was shown throughout the entire movie. There are many steps that need to be completed before a verdict and judgment can be reached. These steps are the pleadings, methods of discovery, pretrial hearings, jury selection, opening statements, introduction of evidence, cross examinations, closing arguments, instructions to the jury, and the verdict and judgment. The case in this movie was actually called Anderson v. Cryovac. The plaintiffs are the Anderson family, the Gamache family, the Kane family, the Robbins family, the Toomey family, and the Zona family. The plaintiffs’ attorneys are Jan Schlichtmann, Joe Mulligan, Anthony Roisman, Charlie Nesson, and Kevin Conway. The two co- defendants are W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods. The two co-defendants’ attorneys are William Cheeseman, Jerome Facher, Neil Jacobs, and Michael Keating.
The movie “12 Angry Men” examines the dynamics at play in a United States jury room in the 1950’s. It revolves around the opinions and mindsets of twelve diverse characters that are tasked with pronouncing the guilt or innocence of a young man accused of patricide. The extraordinary element is that their finding will determine his life or death. This play was made into a movie in 1957, produced by Henry Fonda who played the lead role, Juror #8, and Reginald Rose who wrote the original screenplay. This essay will explore some of the critical thinking elements found within the context of this movie, and will show that rational reason and logic when used effectively can overcome the mostly ineffective rush to judgment that can be prevalent in a population. The juror that seemed interesting is Juror #8, who was played by Henry Fonda. Juror #8, or Davis, is an architect, the first dissenter and protagonist in the film. He was the first one to declare that the young man was innocent and he managed to convince the other jurors to see his point of view. Durkheim states that when we respond to deviance, it brings people together (Macionis, 2013, p. 159). We affirm the moral ties that bind us together, which was seen in the movie. At first, almost all of the jurors were so bent on convicting the young man based on their feelings, but they then started to analyze the facts and they came together to make their final decision.
Without the understanding of what really happened in an event or place and time justice is not being sought out and can’t be dealt to those that need it. We all have felt wronged, at one time or another, in one form or another and I feel that is why we all have a common interest in seeking justice.