A Civil Action is a 1995 non-fiction book written by Jonathan Harr. It tells the story of a water pollution case in Woburn, Massachusetts, during the 1980s. The book became a best-selling book and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction.

The book is based on the legal case Anderson v. Cryovac. The first court decision in this case was reported in 96 F.R.D. 431 (a ruling that denied the defendants’ request to dismiss the case).

A 1998 movie with the same name was made based on the book. In the film, John Travolta plays Jan Schlichtmann, the lawyer for the people affected by the pollution, and Robert Duvall plays Jerome Facher, the lawyer for Beatrice Foods.

Plot summary

After learning that her child has leukemia, Anne Anderson notices that many other children in her city also have this disease, which is not very common. She then works with other families and finds a lawyer named Jan Schlichtmann to help them.

At first, Schlichtmann does not want to take the case because there is not enough proof and no clear company to blame. Later, he takes the case and finds evidence that a chemical called trichloroethylene (TCE), which is used in industry and not known to cause leukemia in humans, had polluted the town’s water supply. The pollution was linked to Riley Tannery, a company owned by Beatrice Foods; a chemical company named W. R. Grace; and another company called Unifirst.

During the lawsuit, Schlichtmann works with other lawyers. He spends a lot of money, as he did in previous cases, but the long process of gathering evidence and the trial use up all their money.

Unifirst agrees to pay about $1 million, and this money is used to continue the case against Grace and Beatrice. The case against Grace is stronger because Schlichtmann has a statement from a former employee who saw pollution, and because a river between Beatrice’s tannery and the polluted wells makes it less likely that Beatrice caused the contamination. The jury decides that Beatrice is not responsible. Although Schlichtmann’s law firm expects a larger payment, it must accept a settlement of $8 million from W.R. Grace because of its poor financial situation.

Schlichtmann gives the settlement money to the families, but not all of it is given to them because some money is used for expenses and lawyer fees (about $375,000 per family). When some families believe Schlichtmann charged too much for expenses, he agrees to give up more of his own payment. Later, Schlichtmann goes bankrupt after losing his home and car and lives in his office for a time. Eventually, he works in environmental, civil, and personal injury law.

A report from the Environmental Protection Agency (which later sued the companies with new evidence) shows that both companies had polluted the wells based on sludge found at the site.

In 1988, Schlichtmann tries to restart the case against Beatrice, but a judge stops it because of testimony from a Beatrice soil chemist. However, because of lawsuits from the Environmental Protection Agency, W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods are forced to pay for the largest chemical cleanup in the Northeastern United States at that time, costing about $68 million.

Critical reception

The New York Times stated, "Harr does not exaggerate individual scenes, but he shows a world with three kinds of people: those who are harmed without fault, those who fight alone for what is right, and those who act harmfully on behalf of powerful companies." Kirkus Reviews described the book as "a quick and detailed lesson on expensive legal battles involving injuries, as detailed as other books about this topic."