Ethical Issues in the Film Erin Brockovich

The film Erin Brockovich portrays several ethical issues, including Erin's illegal provision of legal advice, her use of questionable investigative techniques, and the lawyers' representation of the group. This article also discusses ethical best practices for class action out-of-court settlements.

Surname: 1
Name:
Instructor:
Course:
Date:
Erin Brockovich
Introduction
The film "Erin Brockovich" features a few moral issues from the point of view of the character
Erin Brockovich. This film depends on a genuine tale about a battling single parent of three set
for serve equity for the inhabitants of Hinkley, California, whose groundwater was debased by
the illicit, lethal contamination practices of utilities goliath Pacific Gas and Electric (PGE),
causing hurtful ailments and hereditary conditions for the occupants and also the PGE
representatives under falsifications (Welsh, Justin. 20-25). Erin meets Ed Masry and the Masry
law office because of a tragic fender bender and finds an occupation at the law office in urgent
need to deal with her family in spite of her absence of involvement in the field and begins
chipping away at the PG and E case.
Erin’s Intentions, Investigative Techniques and Business Practices Ethical
There were a few moral issues in the motion picture. The principal moral issue that surfaces in
the film are when asks concerning whether she could investigate the case further and Mr. Masry
encourages her to continue. He should not have given her the expert to examine since she isn't a
legal counselor and has no lawful experience (Cutting, James 42). All through the film, Erin was
giving lawful insight illegally and Mr. Masry thought about that. For example, she promptly goes

Surname: 2
to the home of Donna Jenson, concedes she isn't a legal counselor, yet continues to make
inquiries. She keeps on doing things that exclusive legitimate counsels are allowed to do, for
example, offer exhortation to customers. Be that as it may, Erin does as such in a way to deal
with secure their trust and advances toward getting to be companions with the residents (Fan, et
al. 81) .
The other ethical issue that can be found in the motion picture is Erin's expert and moral conduct.
From the way, she dressed to the methods she used to gather prove in the motion picture would
as a rule not be allowable in court (ex. trespassing to pick up confirm, seek without warrant) In
this film, Erin utilized her youngsters and capacity to utilize her" physical resources" to draw the
townspeople into a confiding in relationship and get them associated with her firm case (Gritton,
Jim, et al 50-63). Did she need involvement as well as she needed on relationship building
abilities when it came to teaming up with other law offices?
Should the Lawyers Representing This Group Have Profited To Such As a Large Degree
from That Settlement?
I strongly believe yes, the legal advisors speaking to the gathering should benefit from the
settlement since what began as a land case including the buy of Donna Jensen's home by Pacific
Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) ended up being an entirely another story. Masry law office
alongside Erin had examined and discovered confirmation to help their case after a great deal of
research (Call, Margin. 55). As she read through the archives, she was befuddled when she
discovered medicinal data incorporated into the document. Erin winds up suspicious and requests
to additionally examine the case. In the wake of chatting with Donna Jensen, and additionally
different occupants of Hinkley, she came to realize that they all had comparative therapeutic
issues. Upon advance examination, she understood that PG&E was to blame since they were

Surname: 3
dumping chromium6 in the town water and it was harming the general population in Hinkley. At
in the first place, the inhabitants were reluctant to conflict with PG&E on the grounds that they
trusted that the organization has completed a considerable measure of use for the network. Erin
made it her principle objective to induce the general population and she was set out to do
whatever important to influence this extensive organization to pay for what they had done and
the lives they destroyed. If it wasn't for the for the Masry law office with Erin on their side, to
take the PG&E Company to the common court searching for remuneration for the benefit of the
inhabitants/customers who ended up wiped out and ailing, the gathering wouldn't have won the
case nor the settlement. Erin beyond any doubt worked hard but it was crafted by the legal
counselors at court too who persuaded the judge (Castle, Jeremiah and Kyla100-120.).
Did Erin Deserve $2.0 Million For Her Work?
Indeed, Erin merited $2.0 million for her work however she was not proficient and did not have
the required capabilities required for the activity. She might not have been the best illustrative for
the inhabitants of Hinkley; the case was won on account of Erin's assurance and the diligent
work she put in the social event the data. She strived to get the confirmation by wrongfully
trespassing the premises of PG and E to get the example water prove and wantonly getting
archives from the water board specialists. Thusly, she took a chance with her security and set
aside her own needs for the occupants at Hinkley. She had won the trust of the occupants and
truly thought about them. This helped in keeping up the spirit of the general population when
they start to feel like the legal counselors are falling flat them (Elliott, Teressa and Catherine 97).
Thoughts Regarding the Ethical Best Practices When It Comes To Class Action Out-Of-
Court Settlements and What Guidelines Would You Recommend To Make It Fair for All
Claimants

Surname: 4
With regards to class activity ecological or shopper claim, a portion of the moral practices that
could be considered are: Correspondence with the potential individuals, Ensuring that portrayal
of the class individuals isn't constrained, Restricting or wiping out offended parties Counsels'
expenses., Irreconcilable circumstance rules are not effortlessly connected to class activities
(Banks, Taunya Lovell 70- 101), . Regular issues of the inquirers must be altogether considered.
For the situation, Amazon Undue Sales Tax Collection Canadian Class Action, the activity
asserts that Amazon has been charging charges under affectations for items with zero assessment
rates and distorting that business impose is expected under government and additionally common
enactment when it was most certainly not. The class activity looks for harms in the measure of
the undue deals charge, enthusiasm on the cash that was gathered unlawfully, and correctional
harms (Teays, Wanda 12- 73).
Conclusion
With the records examined, appropriate pay in real money or generally should be given to the
petitioners, if endured. These cases can either huge or little depending on the number of
petitioners. To give a reasonable judgment, the preliminary or the claim must be founded on the
degree of these harms endured. In the wake of breaking down the above, we can see that morals
are an enormous piece of the direction of any business as far as expert morals and moral issues
that emerge in a business domain. Numerous organizations typify these moral practices in their
business choices regular with broad arrangements of approaches and systems (Cooley, Valerie,
and Pennock. 88). In any case, untrustworthy practices are still practiced by a few firms and it is
hard to totally beat them since organizations have a tendency to build the benefits for the
proprietors to the detriment of others instead of being correct and ethically just.

Surname: 5
Work cited
Banks, Taunya Lovell. "Civil Trials: A Film Illusion." Fordham L. Rev. 85 (2016): 1969.
Call, Margin. "Business Ethics in Hollywood Movies." Business Ethics: An Ethical Decision-
Making Approach (2017): 270.
Castle, Jeremiah J., and Kyla Stepp. "Silver screen sorting: Social identity and selective exposure
in popular film viewing." The Social Science Journal (2018).
Cooley, Valerie, and Andrew Pennock. "Teaching Policy Analysis Through Animated Films: A
Mickey Mouse Assignment?." PS: Political Science & Politics 48.4 (2015): 601-606.
Cutting, James E. "Event segmentation and seven types of narrative discontinuity in popular
movies." Acta psychologica149 (2014): 69-77.
Cutting, James E., and Kacie L. Armstrong. "Facial expression, size, and clutter: Inferences from
movie structure to emotion judgments and back." Attention, Perception, &
Psychophysics 78.3 (2016): 891-901.
Elliott, Teressa L., and Catherine Neal. "Using Films to Teach Business Ethics Students." The
Contribution of Fiction to Organizational Ethics. Emerald Group Publishing Limited,
2014. 191-206.
Fan, Yinghui, Xingwei Zhang, and Xinlu Xie. "Design and Development of a Course in
Professionalism and Ethics for CDIO Curriculum in China." Science and engineering
ethics21.5 (2015): 1381-1389.
Gritton, Jim, et al. "Movies in the classroom: lessons for curriculum design." Compass: Journal
of Learning and Teaching 8.12 (2016).

Surname: 6
Teays, Wanda. "Show Me a Class That’s Got a Good Movie, Show Me: Teaching Ethics through
Film." Teaching Ethics17.1 (2017): 115-126.
Welsh, Justin. "The case against fragrance [Book Review]." Journal of the Australasian College
of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine 36.2 (2017): 17.