Masry and Vititoe was the personal injury law firm that could. Their inquisitive law clerk, Erin Brockovich had gone above and beyond to get to the bottom of a water contamination issue in Hinkley, California. She drove to the Mojave Desert to investigate and saw green water and two-headed frogs. The residents were suffering from nose bleeds, miscarriages and cancer.
Erin Brockovich and Ed Masry (pictured right) were portrayed by Albert Finney and Julia Roberts (pictured left)
In the end, this personal injury firm secured a $333,000,000 settlement for 650 plaintiffs, and Julia Roberts gave an Oscar-winning performance of heroine Erin Brockovich in a film portraying the case. Brockovich, who helped secure the largest toxic tort settlement in American history at the time, is back.
Not only has she released a new book, Superman’s Not Coming, about our national water crisis, but she’s working on an ABC drama about her life. Rebel is the name of the project she’s producing, and Brockovich will be portrayed by Katey Sagal.
Brockovich’s life had been all but dormant following the winning settlement and Hollywood blockbuster. She soon took on another water contamination case in a Latino farming community in California, and was soon hit with a deluge of inquiries from concerned residents around the country. “I put my finger in the dike,” she told a reporter at The Atlantic, “and I thought I might help stop its flow. I had no idea.”
In 2005, she opened Erin Brockovich Consulting, to advise people on environmental contamination issues. She also consults with law firms, and is a regular on the keynote-speaker circuit. Though she had never stopped advocating for people injured by toxic chemicals, her resurgence both in literature and on television is a fortifying reminder that real-life heroes do exist.
Toxic exposure is one of the practice areas that Allen & Allen specializes in. If you feel there is a toxicity issue somewhere in the workplace, in your water supply or elsewhere in your environment, call us today at 866-388-1307.
