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The book is excellent in detailing how the contamination started with a weird smell, taste in the water, and expands. The families weren't looking for money. The case was not just about the loss of children and even adults to acute leukemia but the book details the story further about the permanent effects of the chemical poisoning that affected the wells in the small community. Woburn had no idea of the damage until it was too late.
Something she wanted like the other families, nobody could have imagined the expense and costs of proving the case in court to a jury. After watching the movie a couple of times, I was glued to the story and was so thankful that somebody donated a book to the thrift shop so I can read it. This book is a keeper on my shelf. He used and hired every possible expert, tests, and experiments in studying the land, soil, water, the victims and their families that costs millions of dollars. His partners wanted a settlement to end this but Jan kept going like the energizger bunny. I can't imagine losing a child and the book clearly explains the details of how the families struggled, fought, and searched for answers.
I admire Jan Schlictmann who went broke trying this case. It's amazingly detailed, researched, and thoroughly a fascinating read. He kept pushing for an admittance of guilt. I never thought Jan treated the families with a patronizing habit. I admire the families' quest for the truth. It wasn't about money and I think Anne should have realized that eventually. They were looking for somebody to admit their guilt in the loss of their children's lives and hoped that action would include cleaning up the contaminated wells that impacted so many of the residents' lives. This book is truly awe-inspiring in finding justice.
I am almost done. I admired the lawyers who despite the case's heavy costs kept going when the money was running low or out. I would love somebody like Jan Schlictmann who pushed costs and expense aside to find out the truth in this investigation. The movie had done justice to this incredible story of greed, indifference, and violations against a community scarred forever. He kept them informed everyday with daily transcripts copied and sent by courier to the involved families at another expensive cost. He was going after the companies at a heavy cost of financial burden. There are many victims and villains in this case. I was surprised that some of the victims like Anne Anderson who lost her beloved son, Jimmy, didn't give Jan much credit.
His total dedication to the case becomes obsession and he loses everything but his own inegrity and fragile grip on life at the end. What he finds is that how much money you have, where each lawyer went to school and who uses more stall tactics to obscure justice prevail. Jan Schlictman, the plaintiff's attorney, enters the case as a high-spending, idealistic attorney who believes that right and truth will prevail.
it is about the obsessive two-edged sword that passion is and its complete hold on us as we descend into its depths and darkness or we ascend with it up to the heavens. In Woburn, Massachusetts, children are dying of leukemia in an epidemiological cluster. Steven Sondheim wrote a musical play entitled 'Passion'.
The plaintiff families allege that toxic waste has been dumped by two large chemical plants and has leaked into their wells, poisoning people. This book is a brilliant analysis of the people involved in the legal system, the process of litigation and the real truth that underlies the facade of our justice system. So it is with the protagonist in this book, Jan Schlictman, an attorney.This book is a real page-turner and reads like the most readable of novels.
It deals with the legal proceedings on an environmental pollution case.
I purchased the book at a great price and it arrived within a few days.
Devan. Mr. six pages missing, back cover bent, so frusterated threw out my book. Will not be back EVER.
It's an especially great look at a lot of the rules behind trials (that's why we read it for class) and yet still accessible for someone with no background in law. Not courtroom drama, but the entire drama surrounding a huge suit from start to finish. This author is quite good; one of my favorite books is also by him, The Lost Painting. I'm a law student who read the book for a Civil Procedure class. The book was a little longer than it needed to be perhaps, but it included a lot of great personalities and a compelling litigation story.
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