Ethical Issues in Erin Brockovich

Ethical Issues in Erin Brockovich

Erin Brockovich is in a car accident that is not her fault and hires attorney Ed Masry to defend her. He gave her the impression that she would be getting a good settlement, but she lost the case. She is a single mom of three, has no money and is unable to find a job. She blames him for losing the case (due to lack of preparation) and forces her way in to a job at his law firm. Because of the way she dresses and acts, nobody takes her seriously and treats her with respect. She is given a real estate pro-bono file to open involving the purchase of Donna Jensen's home by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PS&E). As she read through the documentation, she found it confusing that there was medical information included in the file. Erin becomes suspicious and asks to further investigate the case. After talking with Donna Jensen, as well as other residents of Hinkley, she became aware that they all had similar medical problems. As she digs deeper, she realizes that PG&E was at fault because they were dumping a toxic waste (chromium 6) in the town water and it was poisoning the people in Hinkley. At first, the residents are hesitant to jump on board and go against PG&E because they believe the company has done a lot of good for the community. Erin made it her mission to convince the people and once she did, she was determined to do whatever necessary to make this large corporation pay for what they had done and the lives they ruined.

There are several ethical issues both personal and professional in this movie.

The first ethical issue that comes up in the movie is when Erin asks if she could investigate the case further and Mr. Masry tells her to go ahead. He should not have given her the authority to investigate since she is not a lawyer and has no legal experience. Throughout the movie Erin was practicing law illegally and Mr. Masry was aware of that. For instance, she immediately goes to the home of Donna Jenson, admits she is not a lawyer, but proceeds to ask her about the real estate transaction and questions why medical records are included in the documentation. She continues to do things that only lawyers are permitted do, such as give advice to clients. However, Erin does so in a way to earn their trust and becomes friends with many of the residents. This proves to be a pivotal point in keeping up the morale of the people when they begin to feel like the lawyers are failing them.

In their first meeting, Donna told Erin that PG&E had paid for doctors' visits for the whole family. However, PG&E was not doing this just to be nice, as they would have the residents believe, they had an ulterior motive. They sent them to specific doctors because these doctors would lie to them to cover up for PG&E. It was clear that PG&E must have paid these doctors to tell the residents that the water was safe and that their health problems were not associated to the chromium. The fact that a doctor would lie to a patient is just as, if not more unethical than what PG&E did by lying to the citizens. Although this issue was not dealt with in the movie, those doctors should have lost their right to practice. The company should have offered the residents of Hinkley the right to see another doctor of their choice, at PG&E's expense.

Upon realizing she needed to get information about the water in Hinkley, specifically the type of chromium, she went to the water board. She was told not to let them know what she was looking for or the records could disappear, so she was very vague and suggested she go back and look for them. The employee was a young guy, so she used her sexuality to convince him to give her access to the records. While going through all the files, she came across a document stating PG&E was ordered to clean up hexavalent chromium that was polluting the water and she made a copy of it without asking permission. After telling Ed the situation and showing him the document, he says they will need more information and asks how she thinks she can get it -- she says "they're called boobs, Ed." She goes right back to the water board and gets all the documentation she can find.

The most evident ethical dilemma of this film is the dishonesty of PG&E about the type of chromium in the water,