Introduction:

The movie Erin Brockovich brings a number of ethical issues to light through the perspective
of Erin Brockovich herself. This film is based on a true story. The movie describes the story of
Erin Brockovich who is a struggling single mother. Based on a true story, Erin follows the
title character who has been divorced twice and now has three small children. She gets a job at a
law firm. Soon she discovers something surprising: in a small desert town, a local water plant has
been poisoning the area water. Now all the towns residents have diseases; bad ones that range
from cancer to spinal meningitis. With Erins help, the small towns residents fought together
against the big name water conglomerate.
According to the movie, for fourteen years, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company had been
dumping water containing chromium six into ponds and covering them over. The ponds were not
lined and the chromium based water leaked into the local water supply exposing residents of that
place to chromium six. Repeated exposure to hexavalent chromium causes chronic headaches,
cancer, nose bleeds, bone and organ deterioration, respiratory failure, liver failure, heart failure,
bone or organ deterioration and it gets into your DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and diseases can
be passed onto your children and it can affect any type of reproduction. The legal limit for
chromium six is .05 parts per million. The entire film shows the power that big corporations have
over citizens and how their interest in making a profit is more important that human life.

Movie plot:
After facing a job interview Erin had an accident by a speeding car. She got injured by that
accident. So she went to a law office for justice and files a suit against the speeding car driver.
Her lawyer assured that there is good chance of winning the law suit but she lost the case. After
losing the case she again started to look for a job because she needs to support her family which
has three children. Then she was nearly forced to join a job. She started her job there regularly.
Somehow Erinas office work leads her to investigate a real estate case where Pacific Gas and
Electric is trying to purchase the Jensenas property who is a local resident of that place. Finding
medical records among the information in this real estate file provokes Erinas investigation into
the case. Later she found that lots of Numerous medical problems suffered by the Jensen family.
Later on it was found that effects of exposure to chromium six in their water supply has created
this diseases of her family. Mrs. Jensen said that the doctor visits in her family to give
medication and health advice is bribed by Pacific Gas and Electric. Doctor said that this physical
hazards has no connection with the possible exposure to chromium six. Pacific Gas and Electric
also had the Jensenas water tested and told them it was fine.
Aa per erinas investigation she found that the Pacific Gas and Electric Company which is a very
big company had knowledge and documentation from the beginning as early as 1966 that water
samples contained chromium six. She asked reports to the company but they were not much
cooperative with her. The Water Company employee provided information to the Pacific Gas

and Electric Company that Erin was investigating around the water company asking questions
about their facility. Erin soon began to receive threatening phone calls. One would assume he
was paid off by Pacific Gas and Electric.
After a while representative from Pacific Gas and electrica company met with the lawyer masry
and offered a big amount for the Jensen home. When the lawyer told about all the illness that
jensens family were suffering, the company representative got angry and threatened the lawyer.
During the legal proceedings it was determined that Pacific Gas and Electricas had knowledge
that chromium six was in the water supplies and they also knew it was poisoning people and they
lied about it. They had even presented a seminar to the community and gave out pamphlets
advising the residents that chromium three was good for them. They did this to establish a statue
of limitations, the community would have one year from the time they first learned of the
problem to file suit and if Pacific Gas and Electric could ride out the year with no one suing, they
would legally be in the clear forever. Eventually the citizens of that place were awarded $333
million. A total of six hundred thirty-four cases, which was the largest direct-action law suit.

Opinion:
Wealth was not the only source of power used in this movie. There was corporate power,
intimidation, desperation, persuasion, compassion and finally the power to do what is morally
right. The power of persuasion is seen throughout the entire movie, and is source of power is best
portrayed by Erin Brockovich. She was also able to get people to talk to her about their medical
problems and convince them to hire Masry as their lawyerThere was corporate power and
intimidation at work in the movie. We see large corporations getting away with unethical
practices at the expense of innocent people every day. People that have money and power
somehow think they are more important than those without money and power.
We can see also from watching this movie that our judicial system and political representation
can get massively caught up in its own red tape and regulations, to where they are not serving the
public in which they are supposed to be serving. In other words the public interest gets lost.

Conclusion:
Big companies are always hungry for profit. When they see an activity that can create them a
huge amount of profit, that time they dont think about anything else that surrounds them. They
even dont want to think and judge what is wrong and right for them. They dont mind to make
profits at the expense of peoples health and welfare. They also pressure people to not to raise
voice against them. Most times they do that by giving bribery and managing the related authority
illegally. So here it is the responsibility of lawyers to stay fair and do what is right for the people
and the society. They must fight back to provide justice for the suffering people. This movie
Erin Broekouich exactly shows this in this movie.

References
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Brockovich_(film)

2) Soderbergh, S. (Director). (2000). Erin Brockovich [Motion picture]. United States:

Universal Studios.
3) http://www.girardikeese.com/Toxic-Torts/
4) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195685/plotsummary