Erin Brockovich, is an inspiring movie based on a true story that

shows triumph is possible. Erin Brockovich was a twice divorced

unemployed single mother of three children. While driving down the
street in California, she was involved in a car accident in which she
suffered a neck injury and claimed it was not her fault. She consulted
lawyer Ed Masry of Masry & Vititoe’s law firm to represent her and
help her sue the man who slammed into her car. Unfortunately, they
lost the case and Erin was left in debt. However, Erin was determined
to turn her life around and she pushed her way into a job filing papers
at Ed Masry’s law firm. Meanwhile, in her personal life, she met her
new neighbor George, a biker, with whom she later started to have a
relationship. He soon became her nanny so she could work late
hours. While at work, Erin came across medical records and blood
samples in real estate files. This intrigued her and after asking Ed to
further investigate, she became fully invested in this case. This case
involved the Pacific Gas & Electric Company contaminating resident’s
water in Hinkley, California. Erin started her investigation by visiting
the Jensen family, where she learned that PG&E wanted to buy their
house and were paying their medical bills. All of a sudden, she
realized that something was not right, which led her to discuss tje
situation with a college science professor. He informed her that there
are several types of chromium, however hexavalent chromium
(chromium 6) is highly toxic as it causes many harmful problems such
as chronic nosebleeds, respiratory disease, liver or heart failure, and
even cancer. With the recommendation from the professor, Erin
headed to Lahontan Regional Water Board in order to determine which
type of chromium was used in Hinkley. It is here that she found an
order for PG&E to cleanup and remove hexavalent chromium that was
contaminating groundwater.
 After reviewing papers in the Hinkley case, the professor told
Erin that it was highly possible that the Jensens cancer was a result of
the chromium. Later, another family talked to Erin and informed her
that the wife had five miscarriages wondering if this could be due to
the chromium. Ed and Erin go to Hinkley looking to add more families
to join the lawsuit against PG&E. Erin became upset when Ed then
hired Kurt Potter, an expert in toxic cases, to help with the Hinkley
case. However, they decided that it was necessary to prove that the
PG&E headquarters in San Francisco knew that the water was
contaminated and did nothing about it. Kurt then said that the case
should only be heard by one judge, so the decision would be final and
is not allowed to be appealed. However, the Hinkley residents were
expecting a trial, so Ed had at meeting in Hinkley to get everyone on
board telling them this plan was the best way to get money for
them. In order for this plan to be enacted, Erin went door to door to
get plaintiffs consent. While doing this, Erin met Charles Embry at a
bar. He informed her that he was a former employee of PG&E who
worked at their chemical plant. He also said he was ordered to
destroy documents that contained incriminating evidence against
PG&E. Fortunately, Charles did not destroy his records and gave them
to Erin. With these records that showed PG&E headquarters were
guilty and the required 634 plaintiff’s signatures, Ed and Erin won the
case for the Hinkley residents. It was ruled by a judge that PG&E had
to pay the plaintiffs $333 million dollars. It ended happily with the
Jensen family receiving five million dollars and Erin received a bonus
check of two million dollars. Brockovich was underestimated but
proved herself to be a hardworking woman that was able to take down
a successful company.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@@@@@@

While working at a law firm which had once represented her (in a personal
injury case), Erin Brockovich (played by Julia Roberts in the film), found
something highly unusual: medical records in a real estate file. She decided
to follow-up.

As she dug deeper into the once-languishing file, she uncovered what tied
real estate transactions to medical information. Pacific Gas & Electric, the
world’s largest public utility, was buying up homes thought to be negatively
impacted by pollution - then destroying them. The contamination, apparently,
had been caused by PG&E’s waste-disposal practices.

At issue was a carcinogenic chemical called hexavalent chromium, known

more simply as “chrome 6.” The company had detected the chemical in a
monitoring well north of its compressor station in Hinkley, California.

Groundwater in the area flowed north - toward the homes, and businesses,
of PG&E’s neighbors (who used groundwater for drinking purposes). And
those neighbors, at least some of them, were getting sick.

Erin Brockovich interviewed many people, found a way to get copies of

incriminating records and discussed the whole situation with her law-firm
boss, Ed Masry (Albert Finney). They decided to file a class-action lawsuit.
It ultimately led to a huge settlement - $333 million - for the area residents.

In this story behind the movie, meet the real Erin Brockovich and Ed Masry.
Take a virtual trip to Hinkley to see the compressor station (and the area
where it is located). Learn about groundwater, the hydrogeologic cycle,
plumes of contamination - and how they all work together when cancer-
causing chemicals are in their midst. Visit Barstow, California (where Ed and
Erin filed the case), examine parts of the court’s file and meet the actual
judges who helped the parties resolve their differences.

here she meets with housewife Donna Jensen, who explains that both she and her husband Peter are
seriously ill and that PG&E, a significant presence in the community, has been paying the family's
medical bills as well as trying to buy their house. The Jensens suspect that hexavalent chromium, known
as Chromium 6, in use at the PG&E plant, may be causing their illness. Later, Erin learns from a UCLA
professor that chromium 6 is added to water as an anti-corrosive and that certain levels of chromium 6
contamination can cause all kinds of illnesses, some of which can prove fatal. On the professor's
recommendation, Erin goes to the Lahontan Regional Water Board, which serves Hinkley, and by playing
up to the naïve young, male clerk, is able to browse through hundreds of old records. Her rearch
uncovers a cleanup and abatement order to PG&E to remove hexavelent chromium, because it is
contaminating groundwater over a large area. When Erin returns to Ed's office, she learns that she has
been fired, as he had misunderstood what she was doing. At home, although Erin is reluctant to become
involved with another man, she begins a relationship with George. Later, Ed comes to see Erin, who is
still unemployed, to tell her that the UCLA professor has examined the papers she found in Hinkley and
concluded that the levels of chromium there could be responsible for the cancer in the Jensen family.
Ed apologizes to Erin and, after she apprises him of her other discoveries, is persuaded to rehire her,
with a raise and benefits. Weeks later, a PG&E representative meets with Ed and Erin and informs them
that the company has made a generous offer to buy the Jensens' home, but denies any responsibility
for their medical expenses. Soon, Tom and Mandy Robinson, who used to live across the street from the
Jensens, come to tell Erin that Mandy has suffered five miscarriages and that their chickens have died
with strange tumors, prompting them to wonder if they are also victims of the chromium use. Ed and
Erin then go to Hinkley, meet with other residents and inform them that his firm will represent them
against PG&E. If they win the case, his fee will be forty percent of whatever is awarded, but if they lose,
his fee will be zero. Erin then interviews several other families with serious illnesses, hoping to add more
families to the claim. Although Ed, who is close to retirement age, begins to worry about battling a giant
company like PG&E, knowing that they could keep him in court, at great expense, for years, he is willing
to continue, if Erin can produce significant evidence. Erin then collects water samples around Hinkley.
Nine months later, Ed and Erin attend a community picnic in Hinkley, seeking to add more names to
their growing list of four hundred and eleven plaintiffs. The case is costing a great deal and Ed is forced
to take a second mortgage on his house. He feels that the punitive damages claim hinges on whether
the PG&E head office in San Francisco was aware of what was going on in Hinkley and uses a legal ploy
of bringing a preliminary suit against PG&E in the San Bernardino County Court for damages and medical
expenses due to ground water contamination. Although PG&E submits a motion to strike the claim, the
judge rules in favor of the residents and reprimands PG&E's lawyers, who later offer Ed and Erin a
twenty-million dollar settlement, which they decline. Meanwhile, Erin's relationship with George and her
children is deteriorating, as she is seldom home. George asks her to quit her job, but she cannot because
it has brought her recognition, along with great self-respect, and she no longer is willing to adjust her
life to the needs of the men in her life. Although Erin asks George to stay, he reluctantly leaves. Erin is
angered when she learns that Ed has engaged a new partner, Kurt Potter, an expert in toxic cases, to
work on the Hinkley litigation, but Kurt has given Ed a check covering all expenses to date. Later, Ed
presents Erin with a check for five thousand dollars and buys her a new car. The case now has six
hundred and thirty-four plaintiffs and Kurt devises a new legal strategy. Feeling that if they go to trial,
PG&E could stretch out the matter with appeals for ten years or more, he recommends that they agree
to binding arbitration whereby the case is heard only by a judge, whose decision is final and cannot be
appealed. Erin reminds Ed that the residents are expecting a trial, but he agrees with Kurt. Erin, who
feels that Ed is pushing her out of the case, has difficulties with Teresa, Kurt's prim, condescending co-
counsel, but surprises her with her knowledge of the plaintiffs' backgrounds. Kurt tells Ed that they must
establish that the PG&E head office knew that the water was bad prior to 1987 and did nothing about
it. In order to use the binding arbitration strategy, it is necessary that ninety percent of the plaintiffs
agree to it, so Ed addresses a meeting at the Hinkley community center and eventually convinces almost
everyone that this is their best chance to get money needed to meet ongoing medical expenses.
However, they are still about two hundred and fifty signatures short, so Erin stays in a nearby motel
and goes door-to-door, seeking the additional signatures. She asks George to come there and look after
the children and he agrees. One night, after securing a bartender's signature, Erin is approached by
Charles Embry, whom she thinks is trying to pick her up, but Charles tells her that he used to work at
the plant and that his forty-one-year-old cousin has just died from cancer after working in the water
cooling towers. Charles tells Erin that he was assigned to destroy a lot of documents, most of which
were dull, but some of which were related to water readings in holding pools and test wells. After getting
information from the documents that Charles did not destroy, Ed and Erin present Kurt with the
necessary six hundred and thirty-four signatures plus incriminating memos from the PG&E head office
to the Hinkley plant. Later, Erin and George return to Hinkley, and Erin takes him to meet Donna. Erin
tells Donna the news that the judge has ruled that PG&E will pay the plaintiffs three hundred and thirty-
three million dollars. She then tells the overjoyed and relieved Jensens that they will receive five million
dollars. Back in the office, the still-contentious Erin is working on another case when Ed gives her a
bonus check, but warns her that the figure is not exactly what they discussed. Erin is outraged that Ed
is underestimating her value, but rendered speechless when she sees that the check is for two million
dollars.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

n 1993, Erin Brockovich is an unemployed single mother of three children who has recently been
injured in a traffic accident with a doctor and is suing him. Her lawyer, Ed Masry, expects to win,
but Erin's explosive courtroom behavior under cross-examination loses her the case, and Ed will
not return her phone calls afterwards. One day, he arrives at work to find her in the office,
apparently working. She says that he told her things would work out and they did not, and that
she needed a job. Ed takes pity on Erin, and she gets a paid job at the office.
Erin is given files for a real estate case where the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is
offering to purchase the home of Donna Jensen, a resident of Hinkley, California. Erin is surprised
to see medical records in the file and visits Donna, who explains that she had simply kept all her
PG&E correspondence together. Donna appreciates PG&E's help: she has had several tumors
and her husband has Hodgkin's lymphoma, but PG&E has always supplied a doctor at their own
expense. Erin asks why they would do that, and Donna replies, "because of the chromium". Erin
begins digging into the case and finds evidence that the groundwater in Hinkley is seriously
contaminated with carcinogenic hexavalent chromium, but PG&E has been telling Hinkley
residents that they use a safer form of chromium. After several days away from the office doing
this research, she is fired by Ed until he realizes that she was working all the time, and sees what
she has found out.
Rehired, she continues her research, and over time, visits many Hinkley residents and wins their
trust. She finds many cases of tumors and other medical problems in Hinkley. Everyone has been
treated by PG&E's doctors and thinks the cluster of cases is just a coincidence, unrelated to the
"safe" chromium. The Jensens' claim for compensation grows into a major class action lawsuit,
but the direct evidence only relates to PG&E's Hinkley plant, not to the senior management.
Knowing that PG&E could slow any settlement for years through delays and appeals, Ed takes
the opportunity to arrange for disposition by binding arbitration, but a large majority of the plaintiffs
must agree to this. Erin returns to Hinkley and persuades all 634 plaintiffs to go along. While she
is there, a man named Charles Embry approaches her to say that he and his cousin were PG&E
employees, but his cousin recently died from the poison. The man says he was tasked with
destroying documents at PG&E, but, "as it turns out," he "wasn't a very good employee".
Embry gives Erin the documents, which include a 1966 memo proving corporate headquarters
knew the water was contaminated with hexavalent chromium, did nothing about it, and advised
the Hinkley operation to keep this secret. The judge orders PG&E to pay a settlement amount of
$333 million to be distributed among the plaintiffs.
In the aftermath, Ed hands Erin her bonus payment for the case but warns her he has changed
the amount. She explodes into a complaint that she deserves more respect, but is astonished to
find that he has increased it—to $2 million.