A Civil Action [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

This book is a depressing lesson in the ways that our judicial system don't work. An adverserial system of justice, by its very nature, leads not to an inquiry into the truth but instead to a polarized system where each side is fighting for its own side and disinterested in the merits of its opposition.

While this book was, in many ways, a real downer, it was also a fascinating chronicle of litigation. I was immediately drawn in my the families' tragedies, Schlichtmann's flawed but good-hearted optimism, and the interaction between the lawyers and the judge. As Schlichtmann swirled deeper into debt, I found it impossible not to feel a growing sense of desparation along with him. The ending is bitterly disappointing, but in many ways the families eventually got what they wanted with subsequent EPA actions and criminal prosecutions.

My husband and I are both attorneys. Last year, he was involved in a case in which the outcome was simply criminal. I felt I could relate in a deeper sense to the drama in A Civil Action after experiencing such a travesty of justice firsthand. We have to work within the confines of the flawed legal system that exists now, but we must accept that it is far from perfect. Judges and juries--as humans--get things wrong all the time. This book, in gripping prose, demonstrates this basic fact of life in all too vivid of detail.

Brilliant, enlightening, enteraining, and mindful work presented here by Jonathan Harr. Harr manages to consume you in the lives of all the characters of this book. The funny thing about the book is that it doesn't move you vicserally about changing the enviroment for the good, but moves you in a very cerebral way.

I don't care one way or another about the enviroment and all those Greenpeace annoying little idiots. I do care about humanity and Harr shows it here. This is a must read.

In the early to mid-1990s, a man named Ken Grant worked as a safety and environmental professional with Grace Co. Grant grew up in Woburn and surrounding communities but was too young to recall the emergence of this tragedy. Around the time this book was published, following a substantial newspaper report of his search for his family roots as well as the enigmatic refusal of the Woburn District Court to allow him to review child custody records (in which he was involved and which occurred about the time the epidemic was making its appearance in the same local court), Grant was suddenly discharged from Grace. Life became Hell for Grant after this in every way. But there was a precedent...
Fifteen years before this book, another man going by the same name living in Woburn across town appeared and began using this common name to go AWOL from the Army, and perhaps much more as the fallout came back to the Ken Grant who was a toddler when the early symptoms of an environmental tragedy surfaced. Over the next 15-20 years from time to time this other person touched in on Ken's life, contacting his workplaces, moving to where he moved, and even later attending the same church at the same time Ken began attending. It appeared Ken was being monitored long term or that someone else was representing himself to be Ken but was not. Jump ahead to when this book was released...
Grant,among other things, worked on a chemical database in a joint venture between Corbus software of Kennett Square, PA and Grace Co. This software program was to track chemicals from the time they entered until the time they left the facility. After Grant was fired inexplicably, Fleet Bank posted a brief brochure detailing an experimental software package that used a logical design very similar to that used by the chemical software. Around this time Grant suddenly had his account levied by the IRS without prior notice as well as inexplicable problems never explained or resolved to this day. Was the software designed for a specific purpose appropriated then adapted for a use inconsistent with its original intent?
Following Grant's sudden discharge, on the Omnitech International website, a 'litigation preparation service' among other things, was a study involving a database being tested in the medical and construction industries, both of which Grant was employed in and in which there was continuity between the companies. Prior to this Grant had been referred by a "friend" to an alleged 'private investigator' who graciously offered services to help him find out what was going on and who it turns frequented the Omnitech website and had family ties to Woburn when the epidemic emerged .