MAIN CHARACTERS in Erin Brockovich

Erin Brockovich• Main character in movie, leading role• Smart with a very powerful voice, always says

what’s on her mind• Willing to do whatever it takes to support

her family – 3 children:Matthew – 8Katie – 6Beth – 10 months

• Married & divorced twice• Beginning of the movie she is on her last 16 dollars

her bank account; later becomes a millionaire aftershe wins the case

Ed Masry• Boss of Erin; owns his own law firm• Firm turns from small town, independent law

firm to big time corporate law firm at the end of the movie

• First hesitant to hire Erin; she persuaded him to do so

• First impression of Erin was “a dumb hick” who “looks like someone who has a lot of fun”

• Smart man, but is unwilling to speak up, so Erin does

• Rewards Erin greatly at the end of the movie with a large sum of money

George• Erin’s love interest throughout the

movie• Watches her kids while she is at

work• In a motorcycle crew• Nice and caring man; treats kids and

Erin with respect• Leaves Erin in the middle of the

movie because she works too much and he doesn’t have time for himself

• Gets back together with Erin at the end of the movie

Charles Embry• Meets Erin in the beginning of the

movie – seen as weird, creepy man• Erin meets him again at a bar, but this time

she thinks he is hitting on her• Ends up being the man that cracks the case• He tells her that he worked at the Hinkley

plant cleaning the cooling towers and he was told to destroy certain documents

• Turns out he kept the documents that proved the main PG&E plant in San Francisco knew what was going on in Hinkley and he turned them over to Erin

• Cousin passed away from kidney tumors caused by the chromium poisoning

Donna Jensen• The case that started Erin’s investigation• Erin wanted to find out why PG&E

needed to know their medical records and what it had to do with selling a house

• Has cancer caused by chromium poisoning (this wasn’t found out until later in the movie)

• Has a husband and two kids• She is the first person Erin tells about

winning the case• Receives $3 million in compensation• Says to Erin after being diagnosed with

cancer again – “You gotta promise me we are going to get them.”

Kurt Potter• Joins with Masry and Brockovich• Provides Masry firm with money to

fund the case• Receives compensation if the court case

is won (and it is)• Case would not have been won without

his interference• At first, doesn’t seem like a nice man,

but later we learn to trust him• Does not think Erin is going to put

everything together until she uncovers the information given to her by Embry

Factual Information About Hinkley vs. PG&E

• The court case was actually called “Anderson vs. Pacific Gas & Electric.”

• It took place in Hinkley, California. Hinkley is located in the Mojave Desert, near the town of Barstow, California. It is not far off the famous Route 66, about 150 miles from Las Vegas.

• On December 7, 1987 officials from the company advised the State of California they had detected levels of hexavalent chromium (chrome 6), a highly toxic and fatal cancer-causing chemical in a groundwater monitoring well north of the compressor station's waste water ponds. The levels were ten times greater than the maximum amount allowed by law.

• After PG&E reported the pollution to the government, company officials started a program to buy every piece of property in the community thought to be affected by the pollution. In what was said to have been a response to vandalism, PG&E had 75% of those houses and buildings destroyed.

• PG&E told the citizens of Hinkley that they had been using chromium in their drinking water making it seem as if it had actually been beneficial, but failed to mention the dangerous type of chromium it had dumped in the environment, also making it seem like the detection was a new development.

• Based on the evidence, high levels of chrome 6 contamination found in 1987 could not have been a surprise to the company, notwithstanding whether senior management knew. People and animals who lived in the area had been breathing, ingesting, and absorbing dangerous toxins into their bodies for decades. Evidence was later found proving that the main branch of PG&E in San Francisco did know what was going on in Hickley.

• PG&E didn't line the ponds until 1972. The company sent 750,000 additional gallons of chrome 6 wastewater every month to the ponds for another six years.

• Once the toxic material was in the unlined ponds, there was nothing to stop it from migrating to the wells that supplied nearby homes, farms and ranches.

• Erin Brockovich and her boss made the decision to represent these people. When 77 initial plaintiffs filed their lawsuit against PG&E in 1993, it was the direct result of a monstrous effort by this dedicated legal team.

• As lawyers for both sides fought, the case grew. Eventually 648 plaintiffs joined the lawsuit.

• by September 19, 1994 the parties reached an agreement to arbitrate/mediate. The agreement pulled the case out of the trial court - where a jury would have decided it - and placed it into the hands of Justice John K. Trotter and Judge Daniel H. Weinstein, two outstanding retired jurists

An End to Anderson vs. PG&E

• At the end of the two year long arbitration trial, the plaintiffs reached a global settlement with PG&E which:

• Compensated all the named plaintiffs in the amount of $333 million

• Required PG&E to clean up the environment • Required PG&E to stop using chromium 6