Actors: John Travolta, Robert Duvall, Kathleen Quinlan, Tony Shalhoub, William H. Macy
Directors: Steven Zaillian
Writers: Steven Zaillian, Jonathan Harr
Producers: David McGiffert, David Wisnievitz, Henry J. Golas, Rachel Pfeffer, Robert Redford
Studio: Walt Disney Video
DVD Release Date: July 13, 1999
Run Time: 115 minutes

A Civil Action is a 1996 non-fiction novel by Jonathan Harr depicting the real-life water contamination case in Woburn,
Massachusetts in the 1980s. The book became a best-seller and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction.

The case is Anderson v. Cryovac. The first reported decision in the case is at 96 F.R.D. 431 (denial of defendants' motion
to dismiss).

The film by the same name based on the book was produced in 1998, starring John Travolta as Jan Schlichtmann and Robert
Duvall as Facher.

After finding her child is diagnosed with leukemia, Anne Anderson begins to notice a high incidence of leukemia, what
should be a relatively rare disease, in her neighborhood. Eventually she gathers other families and seeks a lawyer, Jan
Schlichtmann, to consider their options.

Though Schlichtmann originally agrees to take the case, the lack of evidence and a clear defendant results in the case
being ignored. Later picking up the case, Schlichtmann finds evidence suggesting trichloroethylene (TCE) contamination
of the town's water supply by Riley Tannery, a subsidiary of Beatrice Foods, a chemical company W.R. Grace, and another
company named Unifirst.

In the course of the lawsuit, Schlichtmann gets other attorneys to assist him. Initially he spends lavishly as he had
in his prior lawsuits, though the length of the discovery process and trial soon stretch his assets to their limit.

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