May 12, 2026
FIGHTING BACK - $333 MILLION AND A GHOST TOWN: ERIN BROCKOVICH VS. PG&E — PART 2
The largest direct-action settlement in American history. And the town that won it is still dying. Garret Fisher concludes the Erin Brockovich story — covering the legal strategy that turned 634 plaintiffs into the most powerful class-action force...
The largest direct-action settlement in American history. And the town that won it is still dying.
Garret Fisher concludes the Erin Brockovich story — covering the legal strategy that turned 634 plaintiffs into the most powerful class-action force PG&E had ever faced, the $333 million settlement that made history, and the $2.5 million bonus check that changed Erin's life overnight. Then the part the movie doesn't show: the chromium plume that kept growing after the settlement. The school that closed. The houses that were bought and bulldozed. The fire captain whose parents died from the water she grew up drinking, who reluctantly packed her family and left anyway. And Erin Brockovich's own assessment of what Hinkley looks like three decades later: "Everything's boarded. It's a ghost town. That's a good way to end a community in America — poison it and its people."
Join our new FB groups page here. Take the poll!
Join the Daily Crime & Justice community on social media! We're building a passionate group of true crime enthusiasts who love diving deep into the most shocking cases in America.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram by searching "Daily Crime & Justice" on either platform.
You'll get exclusive behind-the-scenes content, breaking news updates on cases we're covering, and early alerts when new episodes drop. Our social media is where Garret Fisher's hottest takes live, including reactions that don't make it into the show.
But more importantly, it's where YOU come in. Share your theories, debate the verdicts, and connect with fellow listeners who are just as obsessed with justice as you are. Did the jury get it right? What questions do you still have? Your comments and insights often shape future episodes.
We cover the trials that matter, but our community makes the conversation unforgettable. Come for Garret's signature cynical commentary, stay for the incredible discussions with thousands of true crime fans who get it.
Garret Fisher concludes the Erin Brockovich story — covering the legal strategy that turned 634 plaintiffs into the most powerful class-action force PG&E had ever faced, the $333 million settlement that made history, and the $2.5 million bonus check that changed Erin's life overnight. Then the part the movie doesn't show: the chromium plume that kept growing after the settlement. The school that closed. The houses that were bought and bulldozed. The fire captain whose parents died from the water she grew up drinking, who reluctantly packed her family and left anyway. And Erin Brockovich's own assessment of what Hinkley looks like three decades later: "Everything's boarded. It's a ghost town. That's a good way to end a community in America — poison it and its people."
Join our new FB groups page here. Take the poll!
Join the Daily Crime & Justice community on social media! We're building a passionate group of true crime enthusiasts who love diving deep into the most shocking cases in America.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram by searching "Daily Crime & Justice" on either platform.
You'll get exclusive behind-the-scenes content, breaking news updates on cases we're covering, and early alerts when new episodes drop. Our social media is where Garret Fisher's hottest takes live, including reactions that don't make it into the show.
But more importantly, it's where YOU come in. Share your theories, debate the verdicts, and connect with fellow listeners who are just as obsessed with justice as you are. Did the jury get it right? What questions do you still have? Your comments and insights often shape future episodes.
We cover the trials that matter, but our community makes the conversation unforgettable. Come for Garret's signature cynical commentary, stay for the incredible discussions with thousands of true crime fans who get it.
WEBVTT
1
00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:13.400
Kalaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Garrett Fischer, Tuesday May twelfth,
2
00:00:13.439 --> 00:00:17.000
twenty twenty six. Yesterday we left off with a file
3
00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:20.399
clerk named Aaron Brockovich, who had driven into the Mojave
4
00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:24.120
Desert with no legal training, spent months knocking on doors
5
00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:27.160
in a dying town, uncovered a thirty year corporate cover
6
00:00:27.239 --> 00:00:31.879
up of hexavalent chromium contamination, recruited six hundred and thirty
7
00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:35.799
four plaintiffs, and watched PG and ESE hired consultants falsify
8
00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:39.359
a dead scientists research to undermine the case against them.
9
00:00:39.719 --> 00:00:43.159
Today we cover what happened next, the legal strategy, the
10
00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:46.240
settlement that broke the record books, and then the part
11
00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:49.479
that the Oscar winning film doesn't show you what happened
12
00:00:49.479 --> 00:00:53.200
to Hinckley after the cameras left. And I want to
13
00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:55.600
be honest with you upfront that this one doesn't have
14
00:00:55.679 --> 00:01:03.840
a clean, happy ending, because the truth doesn't always. One
15
00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:06.200
of the decisions that defined the outcome of this case
16
00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:09.239
was made early in the legal process, and it was
17
00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:12.560
counterintuitive enough that Ed Mazri had to work to convince
18
00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:15.480
the Hinckley residents to go along with it rather than
19
00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:18.879
pursuing a traditional jury trial, which is what most people
20
00:01:18.920 --> 00:01:22.079
picture when they imagine a landmark lawsuit, twelve people in
21
00:01:22.120 --> 00:01:26.159
a box, closing arguments, a dramatic verdict. Masri and his
22
00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:31.000
co council recommended binding arbitration. The case would be decided
23
00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:34.120
by a panel of arbitrators rather than a jury, with
24
00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:37.920
a maximum possible damages award of four hundred million dollars,
25
00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:41.200
and the decision would be final and not subject to
26
00:01:41.239 --> 00:01:45.120
the usual appeals process. The residents were nervous about this.
27
00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:48.879
They had expected a trial. They wanted their day in court.
28
00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:54.079
In the most literal sense, witnesses testimony, the public accountability
29
00:01:54.079 --> 00:01:57.840
of an open proceeding arbitration felt like a closed room,
30
00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:02.079
less dramatic, less visible mass Rey's argument was that it
31
00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:04.599
was faster, that it was more likely to result in
32
00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:07.599
a substantial award rather than the risk of a sympathetic
33
00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:11.240
jury being overwhelmed by PG and e's expert witnesses, and
34
00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:14.479
that the finality of arbitration meant PG and E couldn't
35
00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:17.599
spend a decade appealing a verdict. While the residents waited,
36
00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:21.879
they agreed to go with arbitration. The process moved through
37
00:02:22.039 --> 00:02:25.520
nineteen ninety four and nineteen ninety five, with the first
38
00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:30.120
group of roughly forty plaintiffs going through arbitration. The results
39
00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:34.520
from those initial cases produced awards totaling approximately one hundred
40
00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:38.360
twenty million dollars, an extraordinary number for the first forty
41
00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:42.319
plaintiffs in what was still an ongoing proceeding. When PG
42
00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:45.080
and E looked at those numbers and extrapolated them out
43
00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:48.879
across the remaining six hundred claimants, the math became untenable.
44
00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:52.560
They were staring at potential total exposure that could approach
45
00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:56.280
or exceed four hundred million dollars, the maximum under the
46
00:02:56.360 --> 00:03:00.599
arbitration agreement, and the arbitration process was producing results that
47
00:03:00.759 --> 00:03:04.800
told them they were not going to win. On July second,
48
00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:08.800
nineteen ninety six, PG and E settled all six hundred
49
00:03:08.840 --> 00:03:12.400
thirty four current and former Hinckley residents received a combined
50
00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:16.080
payment of three hundred thirty three million dollars, the largest
51
00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:19.159
settlement ever paid in a direct action lawsuit in the
52
00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:23.159
history of the United States at that time. Individual payments
53
00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:27.199
varied widely. One plaintiff reported knowing of awards ranging from
54
00:03:27.319 --> 00:03:30.800
ten thousand dollars to two point five million dollars, though
55
00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:34.599
recipients were bound by confidentiality agreements that prevented them from
56
00:03:34.639 --> 00:03:38.800
disclosing what they had personally received. The median award was
57
00:03:38.919 --> 00:03:42.520
roughly five hundred thousand dollars. For families who had spent
58
00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:45.400
years watching loved ones die from cancers, they could now
59
00:03:45.479 --> 00:03:47.680
name and trace and connect to a company that had
60
00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:52.000
known and said nothing. It was at least something. At
61
00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:55.879
least the number acknowledged what had been taken. Aaron's bonus.
62
00:03:56.400 --> 00:03:59.520
Aaron Brockovich was not a named attorney on the case.
63
00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:03.840
She was a legal clerk, a paralegal, which meant she
64
00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:06.800
was not entitled to a percentage of the attorney's fees
65
00:04:06.919 --> 00:04:10.759
in the standard way. What she received was a bonus
66
00:04:10.919 --> 00:04:14.400
determined by Ed Masry, paid from the firm share of
67
00:04:14.439 --> 00:04:17.519
the settlement. He had told her before the settlement came
68
00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:20.000
through that he had changed the amount he was planning
69
00:04:20.040 --> 00:04:24.120
to give her. She was bracing for bad news. He
70
00:04:24.199 --> 00:04:27.160
handed her a check for two point five million dollars.
71
00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:31.000
Aaron Brockovich had seventy four dollars in her bank account
72
00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:34.319
when she started investigating the Hinckley case four years earlier.
73
00:04:34.920 --> 00:04:37.399
She used the two point five million dollars to buy
74
00:04:37.399 --> 00:04:40.879
a house in Agra Hills, California, and later described the
75
00:04:40.920 --> 00:04:44.439
experience of going from barely making rent to financial security
76
00:04:44.519 --> 00:04:48.879
as disorienting. She also said candidly that the sudden wealth
77
00:04:48.920 --> 00:04:51.600
made her over indulge her children out of guilt about
78
00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:54.639
the time the case had taken from them. She is
79
00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:57.879
not precious about any of this. She tells it straight.
80
00:04:58.519 --> 00:05:01.000
She had been a single mother, holding everything together with
81
00:05:01.319 --> 00:05:05.079
very little, and then everything changed very fast, and it
82
00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:07.319
took time to find her footing in the new version
83
00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:11.600
of her life. She has never stopped working. In the
84
00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:15.079
years since Hinckley, she has consulted on dozens of environmental
85
00:05:15.079 --> 00:05:19.600
contamination cases across the country and internationally, built a research
86
00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:22.519
and consulting firm, and continued to knock on doors and
87
00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:26.399
communities where people are sick and a corporation nearby is
88
00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:29.879
telling them there's nothing to worry about. She says. Hinckley
89
00:05:29.959 --> 00:05:33.160
is not an isolated case. She says it is a pattern.
90
00:05:33.959 --> 00:05:37.800
Every time she goes somewhere new, she sees the same playbook.
91
00:05:38.160 --> 00:05:42.759
Company denies, community suffers, regulator moves slowly, and whoever lives
92
00:05:42.759 --> 00:05:46.759
there is left to fight or leave the movie. The
93
00:05:46.839 --> 00:05:49.160
film came out in two thousand and four years after
94
00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:53.680
the settlement. Julia Roberts's Aaron Albert Finney as Ed Mazri,
95
00:05:54.319 --> 00:05:58.040
Steven Soderberg directing It won Roberts the Academy Award for
96
00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:00.879
Best Actress and grossed over two hundred and fifty million
97
00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:04.639
dollars worldwide. Aaron herself has said the film is about
98
00:06:04.759 --> 00:06:08.000
ninety eight percent accurate, which is a remarkably high bar
99
00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:11.480
for a Hollywood biopic. The scene where a pgn E
100
00:06:11.639 --> 00:06:14.000
attorney is afraid to drink from a glass of hinky
101
00:06:14.040 --> 00:06:17.120
water that Aaron sets in front of her, that actually happened.
102
00:06:17.879 --> 00:06:20.199
Soderberg cut a scene where Aaron got sick from the
103
00:06:20.279 --> 00:06:24.680
chromium exposure during the investigation, which also actually happened, because
104
00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:26.800
he didn't want the film to become a story about
105
00:06:26.839 --> 00:06:31.040
the protagonist's illness rather than her fight. The film ends
106
00:06:31.079 --> 00:06:35.560
with the settlement. The credits roll on a victory. The
107
00:06:35.639 --> 00:06:41.519
story unfortunately does not end there after the break, the
108
00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:45.040
plume that kept growing, the school that closed, the house
109
00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:48.680
is being bought and bulldozed, and the question that nobody
110
00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:51.959
in Hinckley can quite answer, what does it mean to
111
00:06:52.079 --> 00:07:01.600
win when the winning doesn't stop? What's killing you the
112
00:07:01.639 --> 00:07:05.959
plume that kept spreading. As part of the settlement, PG
113
00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:08.639
and E agreed not just to pay damages, but to
114
00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:12.879
clean up the contaminated groundwater. That cleanup has been ongoing
115
00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:16.720
for thirty years. It is not complete. It may not
116
00:07:16.839 --> 00:07:19.279
be complete within the lifetimes of the people who are
117
00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:24.279
alive today. In the early two thousands, environmental monitoring began
118
00:07:24.360 --> 00:07:29.199
showing something deeply troubling. The chromium plume was not shrinking,
119
00:07:29.720 --> 00:07:33.560
it was growing. A contamination area that had originally been
120
00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:36.000
measured at roughly two and a half miles long was
121
00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:39.519
by twenty thirteen eight miles long and two to four
122
00:07:39.560 --> 00:07:43.160
miles wide. The plume had migrated downward from the upper
123
00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:46.680
Aquifer into the lower Aquifer, the deeper water table that
124
00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:49.720
feeds wells even farther from the original PG and E
125
00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:53.839
compressor station. Chromium six was now showing up in water
126
00:07:53.920 --> 00:07:57.079
tested miles away from where it had originally been found,
127
00:07:57.639 --> 00:08:00.000
reaching properties that had not been part of the original
128
00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:02.480
in a lawsuit because their owners had no reason to
129
00:08:02.519 --> 00:08:07.040
believe they were affected. In twenty twelve, regulators find PG
130
00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:10.240
and E three point six million dollars for allowing the
131
00:08:10.240 --> 00:08:13.279
plume to spread beyond boundaries they had been ordered to
132
00:08:13.319 --> 00:08:17.519
contain it within. PG and E began a more aggressive
133
00:08:17.560 --> 00:08:21.560
remediation program, pumping ethanol into the ground to feed microbes
134
00:08:21.560 --> 00:08:25.240
that convert chromium six into the less toxic chromium three,
135
00:08:25.720 --> 00:08:29.560
planting vast fields of alfalfa that absorb and biologically process
136
00:08:29.639 --> 00:08:33.960
the contaminated water, building concrete barriers to contain the plume's edges.
137
00:08:34.840 --> 00:08:37.399
By twenty twenty four, PG and E said it had
138
00:08:37.399 --> 00:08:41.200
removed about eighty nine percent of the estimated chromium six release.
139
00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:45.399
The cleanup, by PG and e's own engineer's estimation, will
140
00:08:45.399 --> 00:08:48.720
take another forty years at minimum to complete. Some wells
141
00:08:48.759 --> 00:08:51.720
were still testing at chromium levels two thy five hundred
142
00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:54.919
times the state safety standard. The cleanup is real, and
143
00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:57.639
it's happening, and it would be inaccurate not to say that,
144
00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:02.039
but forty more years and two thousand, five hundred times
145
00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:05.519
the safety standard in some wells, and the plume is
146
00:09:05.559 --> 00:09:08.279
in the lower aquifer now, which means it has gotten
147
00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:11.080
into a water source that is far more difficult to
148
00:09:11.159 --> 00:09:14.559
remediate than the upper aquifer. The people who live in
149
00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:18.240
Hinckley today, those who remain turn off their wells and
150
00:09:18.360 --> 00:09:22.759
use bottled water. Provided by PG and E. The company
151
00:09:22.759 --> 00:09:25.840
that poisoned the water now delivers the water. That is
152
00:09:25.879 --> 00:09:33.279
the arrangement. What happened to the town? Hinckley had a school.
153
00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:36.879
It closed after the twenty twelve to twenty thirteen school
154
00:09:36.919 --> 00:09:40.039
year because the population of children had dropped too low
155
00:09:40.120 --> 00:09:43.320
to sustain it. There wasn't enough left of the community
156
00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:46.759
to fill a classroom. The fire department was losing members
157
00:09:46.799 --> 00:09:50.159
one by one, not because firefighters were leaving their profession,
158
00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:54.320
but because PG and E was buying their homes. Four
159
00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:57.480
of the department's six members were in buyout negotiations at
160
00:09:57.480 --> 00:10:01.840
the same time, including the fire captain, Julie Hegenberger, whose
161
00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:04.639
mother was the town nurse and whose father had founded
162
00:10:04.639 --> 00:10:08.200
the volunteer fire department. Her parents had both died of
163
00:10:08.240 --> 00:10:12.320
diseases she blamed on the contaminated water. Her husband, who
164
00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:15.200
had grown up moving constantly and had always dreamed of
165
00:10:15.240 --> 00:10:18.320
staying in one place, raising their children in one house,
166
00:10:18.759 --> 00:10:21.000
watching them go through the same schools he had wished
167
00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:24.200
he could attend. He and Julie decided their children's safety
168
00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:28.320
had to come first. They packed and left. You get
169
00:10:28.360 --> 00:10:32.240
a bitterness about the whole thing, said Patsy Morris, an
170
00:10:32.279 --> 00:10:35.480
eighty three year old longtime resident who remembered Hinckley when
171
00:10:35.480 --> 00:10:38.519
the houses had green lawns and children played on the streets.
172
00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:41.679
They're just going to make this a big dust bowl.
173
00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:43.799
That's all I can say about it. My friends are
174
00:10:43.879 --> 00:10:46.759
leaving one way or another. It gets you, you know.
175
00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:51.080
She was describing in plain language what happens to a
176
00:10:51.159 --> 00:10:54.759
place when a corporation poisons its foundation and the cleanup
177
00:10:54.759 --> 00:10:58.519
takes longer than the community can survive. The houses that
178
00:10:58.600 --> 00:11:02.559
PG and E buys are not rehabilitated and resold. They
179
00:11:02.600 --> 00:11:07.360
are raised, torn down, the land cleared, the lots left empty.
180
00:11:08.159 --> 00:11:11.480
The New York Times visited in twenty sixteen and described
181
00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:15.120
Hinckley as having slowly become a ghost town. When ABC
182
00:11:15.159 --> 00:11:18.080
News returned with Aaron Brockovich in twenty twenty one, her
183
00:11:18.120 --> 00:11:23.759
assessment was direct, everything's boarded. It's a ghost town. That's
184
00:11:23.799 --> 00:11:26.879
a good way to end a community in America poisoned
185
00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:31.440
and its people. The broader picture here's the detail that
186
00:11:31.559 --> 00:11:34.039
I think has not gotten enough attention in the years
187
00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:37.559
since the settlement and the movie Chromium six is not
188
00:11:37.720 --> 00:11:42.039
only in Hinckley. In twenty sixteen, The Environmental Working Group
189
00:11:42.120 --> 00:11:45.639
analyzed federal water testing data from across the country and
190
00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:50.000
found that hexavalent chromium contaminates water supplies reaching more than
191
00:11:50.039 --> 00:11:54.240
two hundred million Americans across all fifty states two hundred
192
00:11:54.279 --> 00:11:58.120
million people. The Hinckley case was not an outlier. It
193
00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:01.200
was a visible example of a problem that is embedded
194
00:12:01.240 --> 00:12:04.879
in the water infrastructure of the country, the result of
195
00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:09.200
decades of industrial practices that deposited heavy metals into groundwater
196
00:12:09.559 --> 00:12:12.519
the communities then drank without knowing what was in it.
197
00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:16.639
California passed a law after the Brokovich case requiring testing
198
00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:20.240
and an enforceable drinking water standard for chromium six, with
199
00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:23.679
a two thousand and four deadline. That deadline was delayed
200
00:12:23.679 --> 00:12:27.600
when PG and ESE consultants successfully placed the fraudulent, rewritten
201
00:12:27.639 --> 00:12:31.279
Chinese study into the scientific record, the same study they
202
00:12:31.320 --> 00:12:34.720
had ghost written for the elderly doctor Jong, and used
203
00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:38.039
it to challenge the regulatory science that would have required
204
00:12:38.039 --> 00:12:41.639
a stricter standard. The law that was supposed to protect
205
00:12:41.639 --> 00:12:45.600
California's water from what happened in Hinckley was delayed for years,
206
00:12:45.679 --> 00:12:49.320
in part because PG and E had corrupted the scientific
207
00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:53.799
foundation that the regulation rested on. The fraud was not
208
00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:57.000
just about winning one lawsuit. It was about shaping the
209
00:12:57.039 --> 00:13:00.320
regulatory environment in ways that served PG and nix ease
210
00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:04.600
interest for decades afterward. In two thousand and six, PG
211
00:13:04.759 --> 00:13:07.639
and E paid another two hundred ninety five million dollars
212
00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:11.639
to settle cases involving roughly one thousand, one hundred additional
213
00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:15.240
plaintiffs from Hinckley and nearby areas who had not been
214
00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:18.840
included in the original nineteen ninety six settlement. In two
215
00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:22.519
thousand and eight, they settled what remained of the Hinckley claims.
216
00:13:23.559 --> 00:13:28.159
Total payouts, including remediation costs, exceed eight hundred million dollars.
217
00:13:28.759 --> 00:13:31.840
The company worth twenty eight billion dollars when Aaron Brockovich
218
00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:34.440
first walked into its orbit, has paid out more than
219
00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:37.559
eight hundred million dollars in Hinckley related costs, and is
220
00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:41.080
still cleaning up groundwater in the Mojave Desert. The cleanup
221
00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:51.440
will outlast everyone involved in this story. I want to
222
00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:54.919
close on what this case actually represents because I think
223
00:13:54.960 --> 00:13:57.720
the movie, as good as it is, makes it easier
224
00:13:57.759 --> 00:14:01.440
to see than it actually was. The movie gives you
225
00:14:01.559 --> 00:14:05.480
Julia Roberts and a satisfying ending. The real story gives
226
00:14:05.480 --> 00:14:07.600
you a file clerk with no legal training who drove
227
00:14:07.639 --> 00:14:10.000
into the desert because a real estate file had blood
228
00:14:10.039 --> 00:14:12.440
tests in it, and who spent four years of her
229
00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:15.639
life connecting a corporation's choices to the cancer in her
230
00:14:15.639 --> 00:14:18.919
neighbour's bodies, while being told repeatedly by people with more
231
00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:21.960
credentials and more resources that she didn't know what she
232
00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:25.600
was talking about. She knew, and she was right. And
233
00:14:25.679 --> 00:14:28.240
the six hundred and thirty four people who trusted her,
234
00:14:28.440 --> 00:14:30.799
who led her into their kitchens and told her about
235
00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:35.080
their dead spouses and their five miscarriages and their children's tumors,
236
00:14:35.720 --> 00:14:39.519
they were right to trust her. The legal system, when
237
00:14:39.559 --> 00:14:41.759
it worked as it was supposed to work, gave them
238
00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:45.720
a reckoning that no other mechanism would have produced. Three
239
00:14:45.799 --> 00:14:49.799
hundred thirty three million dollars is not enough. No amount
240
00:14:49.799 --> 00:14:51.799
of money is enough for what was done to Hinckley.
241
00:14:52.440 --> 00:14:55.360
But it was accountability, and it was real, and it
242
00:14:55.480 --> 00:14:58.639
happened because one person with no law degree refused to
1
00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:13.400
2
00:00:13.439 --> 00:00:17.000
3
00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:20.399
4
00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:24.120
5
00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:27.160
6
00:00:27.239 --> 00:00:31.879
7
00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:35.799
8
00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:39.359
9
00:00:39.719 --> 00:00:43.159
10
00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:46.240
11
00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:49.479
12
00:00:49.479 --> 00:00:53.200
13
00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:55.600
14
00:00:55.679 --> 00:01:03.840
15
00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:06.200
16
00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:09.239
17
00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:12.560
18
00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:15.480
19
00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:18.879
20
00:01:18.920 --> 00:01:22.079
21
00:01:22.120 --> 00:01:26.159
22
00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:31.000
23
00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:34.120
24
00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:37.920
25
00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:41.200
26
00:01:41.239 --> 00:01:45.120
27
00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:48.879
28
00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:54.079
29
00:01:54.079 --> 00:01:57.840
30
00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:02.079
31
00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:04.599
32
00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:07.599
33
00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:11.240
34
00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:14.479
35
00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:17.599
36
00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:21.879
37
00:02:22.039 --> 00:02:25.520
38
00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:30.120
39
00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:34.520
40
00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:38.360
41
00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:42.319
42
00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:45.080
43
00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:48.879
44
00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:52.560
45
00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:56.280
46
00:02:56.360 --> 00:03:00.599
47
00:03:00.759 --> 00:03:04.800
48
00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:08.800
49
00:03:08.840 --> 00:03:12.400
50
00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:16.080
51
00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:19.159
52
00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:23.159
53
00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:27.199
54
00:03:27.319 --> 00:03:30.800
55
00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:34.599
56
00:03:34.639 --> 00:03:38.800
57
00:03:38.919 --> 00:03:42.520
58
00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:45.400
59
00:03:45.479 --> 00:03:47.680
60
00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:52.000
61
00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:55.879
62
00:03:56.400 --> 00:03:59.520
63
00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:03.840
64
00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:06.800
65
00:04:06.919 --> 00:04:10.759
66
00:04:10.919 --> 00:04:14.400
67
00:04:14.439 --> 00:04:17.519
68
00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:20.000
69
00:04:20.040 --> 00:04:24.120
70
00:04:24.199 --> 00:04:27.160
71
00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:31.000
72
00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:34.319
73
00:04:34.920 --> 00:04:37.399
74
00:04:37.399 --> 00:04:40.879
75
00:04:40.920 --> 00:04:44.439
76
00:04:44.519 --> 00:04:48.879
77
00:04:48.920 --> 00:04:51.600
78
00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:54.639
79
00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:57.879
80
00:04:58.519 --> 00:05:01.000
81
00:05:01.319 --> 00:05:05.079
82
00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:07.319
83
00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:11.600
84
00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:15.079
85
00:05:15.079 --> 00:05:19.600
86
00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:22.519
87
00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:26.399
88
00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:29.879
89
00:05:29.959 --> 00:05:33.160
90
00:05:33.959 --> 00:05:37.800
91
00:05:38.160 --> 00:05:42.759
92
00:05:42.759 --> 00:05:46.759
93
00:05:46.839 --> 00:05:49.160
94
00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:53.680
95
00:05:54.319 --> 00:05:58.040
96
00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:00.879
97
00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:04.639
98
00:06:04.759 --> 00:06:08.000
99
00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:11.480
100
00:06:11.639 --> 00:06:14.000
101
00:06:14.040 --> 00:06:17.120
102
00:06:17.879 --> 00:06:20.199
103
00:06:20.279 --> 00:06:24.680
104
00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:26.800
105
00:06:26.839 --> 00:06:31.040
106
00:06:31.079 --> 00:06:35.560
107
00:06:35.639 --> 00:06:41.519
108
00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:45.040
109
00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:48.680
110
00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:51.959
111
00:06:52.079 --> 00:07:01.600
112
00:07:01.639 --> 00:07:05.959
113
00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:08.639
114
00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:12.879
115
00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:16.720
116
00:07:16.839 --> 00:07:19.279
117
00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:24.279
118
00:07:24.360 --> 00:07:29.199
119
00:07:29.720 --> 00:07:33.560
120
00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:36.000
121
00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:39.519
122
00:07:39.560 --> 00:07:43.160
123
00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:46.680
124
00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:49.720
125
00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:53.839
126
00:07:53.920 --> 00:07:57.079
127
00:07:57.639 --> 00:08:00.000
128
00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:02.480
129
00:08:02.519 --> 00:08:07.040
130
00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:10.240
131
00:08:10.240 --> 00:08:13.279
132
00:08:13.319 --> 00:08:17.519
133
00:08:17.560 --> 00:08:21.560
134
00:08:21.560 --> 00:08:25.240
135
00:08:25.720 --> 00:08:29.560
136
00:08:29.639 --> 00:08:33.960
137
00:08:34.840 --> 00:08:37.399
138
00:08:37.399 --> 00:08:41.200
139
00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:45.399
140
00:08:45.399 --> 00:08:48.720
141
00:08:48.759 --> 00:08:51.720
142
00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:54.919
143
00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:57.639
144
00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:02.039
145
00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:05.519
146
00:09:05.559 --> 00:09:08.279
147
00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:11.080
148
00:09:11.159 --> 00:09:14.559
149
00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:18.240
150
00:09:18.360 --> 00:09:22.759
151
00:09:22.759 --> 00:09:25.840
152
00:09:25.879 --> 00:09:33.279
153
00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:36.879
154
00:09:36.919 --> 00:09:40.039
155
00:09:40.120 --> 00:09:43.320
156
00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:46.759
157
00:09:46.799 --> 00:09:50.159
158
00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:54.320
159
00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:57.480
160
00:09:57.480 --> 00:10:01.840
161
00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:04.639
162
00:10:04.639 --> 00:10:08.200
163
00:10:08.240 --> 00:10:12.320
164
00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:15.200
165
00:10:15.240 --> 00:10:18.320
166
00:10:18.759 --> 00:10:21.000
167
00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:24.200
168
00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:28.320
169
00:10:28.360 --> 00:10:32.240
170
00:10:32.279 --> 00:10:35.480
171
00:10:35.480 --> 00:10:38.519
172
00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:41.679
173
00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:43.799
174
00:10:43.879 --> 00:10:46.759
175
00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:51.080
176
00:10:51.159 --> 00:10:54.759
177
00:10:54.759 --> 00:10:58.519
178
00:10:58.600 --> 00:11:02.559
179
00:11:02.600 --> 00:11:07.360
180
00:11:08.159 --> 00:11:11.480
181
00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:15.120
182
00:11:15.159 --> 00:11:18.080
183
00:11:18.120 --> 00:11:23.759
184
00:11:23.799 --> 00:11:26.879
185
00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:31.440
186
00:11:31.559 --> 00:11:34.039
187
00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:37.559
188
00:11:37.720 --> 00:11:42.039
189
00:11:42.120 --> 00:11:45.639
190
00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:50.000
191
00:11:50.039 --> 00:11:54.240
192
00:11:54.279 --> 00:11:58.120
193
00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:01.200
194
00:12:01.240 --> 00:12:04.879
195
00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:09.200
196
00:12:09.559 --> 00:12:12.519
197
00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:16.639
198
00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:20.240
199
00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:23.679
200
00:12:23.679 --> 00:12:27.600
201
00:12:27.639 --> 00:12:31.279
202
00:12:31.320 --> 00:12:34.720
203
00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:38.039
204
00:12:38.039 --> 00:12:41.639
205
00:12:41.639 --> 00:12:45.600
206
00:12:45.679 --> 00:12:49.320
207
00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:53.799
208
00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:57.000
209
00:12:57.039 --> 00:13:00.320
210
00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:04.600
211
00:13:04.759 --> 00:13:07.639
212
00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:11.639
213
00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:15.240
214
00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:18.840
215
00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:22.519
216
00:13:23.559 --> 00:13:28.159
217
00:13:28.759 --> 00:13:31.840
218
00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:34.440
219
00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:37.559
220
00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:41.080
221
00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:51.440
222
00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:54.919
223
00:13:54.960 --> 00:13:57.720
224
00:13:57.759 --> 00:14:01.440
225
00:14:01.559 --> 00:14:05.480
226
00:14:05.480 --> 00:14:07.600
227
00:14:07.639 --> 00:14:10.000
228
00:14:10.039 --> 00:14:12.440
229
00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:15.639
230
00:14:15.639 --> 00:14:18.919
231
00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:21.960
232
00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:25.600
233
00:14:25.679 --> 00:14:28.240
234
00:14:28.440 --> 00:14:30.799
235
00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:35.080
236
00:14:35.720 --> 00:14:39.519
237
00:14:39.559 --> 00:14:41.759
238
00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:45.720
239
00:14:45.799 --> 00:14:49.799
240
00:14:49.799 --> 00:14:51.799
241
00:14:52.440 --> 00:14:55.360
242
00:14:55.480 --> 00:14:58.639