A Great Amount of Unjust Decisions Toward Erin Brockovich

Erin Brockovich was a mom who was suffering to find a job and to provide support for her three young children. She is at a low state of her life, and during this time she also gets into a car accident which she is not at fault, yet she still loses the case against the doctor. She begged her lawyer to allow her to work with him in compensation for losing the court case. Even Though her lawyer doesn’t take her seriously, because of her style of clothes, and her unprofessional choice of words, he still felt bad or the woman and her children. Therefore, he allowed her to work at his office with him. She quickly comes across an organization who is doing some illegal act which are affecting the health of the people in the area and convinced to get her lawyer involved to crack the case against the PG&E.

The unethical dilemma in the car accident case was that there was a great amount of unjust decisions toward Erin Brockovich. First off, there was a lack of respect toward Erin. The doctor’s lawyer started to bring up her past and when she states that she has two ex-husbands, people in the courtroom had a look of judgment on their face. The doctor’s lawyer later on brings up that she is probably in a desperate state in her life and “... a doctor in a Jaguar must have seemed like a pretty good meal ticket” he was trying to say that Erin had crashed into the doctor on purpose so she could get money out of him to provide for herself and her family. 

This was not an ethical thing, since he is using her life situation to lie about the car accident. There was also a lack of distributive justice. Erin and the doctor had not been treated equally, for their reputations. As the doctors lawyer states “...an ER doctor who spends his days saving lives, was out of control” this shows that the doctor was winning the case due to his position, but in real life even a doctor could do as much illegal actions as anyone else, a person's job position is not an excuse in unethical behaviours.

When PG&E learned that Masry’s law firm is investigating their use of toxins, a representative from PG&E was sent to the firm to stop the investigation. They tried to bribe the Jensen family who has been affected and become severely ill, and Annabell (their daughter), is fighting cancer that has to do with PG&E. The family was offered $250,000, but were not offered to pay for any medical expenses. The person representing the company is known to be an uncaring person who is not taking any responsibility for the damages his company has caused to this family. Another example of the company, and therefore business world, being used  in a negative way is when one of PG&E employees called and threatened the safety of Erin and her kids.Erin is threatened by this person because PG&E knows that Erin has a lot of information and proof to prove their unethical behaviours. Also most employees would not like to work for an organization that is doing harm to innocent people.

The community were greatly affected by the companies unethical behaviour. The first thing is that the community suffered from the toxic contamination that the company had been doing to the water source of the area. This lead to a large amount of people to become severely ill. It could cause families stress due to the suffering of a loved one or even the loss of a loved one. Using examples from the movie, how can a manager or management team’s neglect affect the company? (Be specific about consequences of actions and who it impacts) (4)

The unethical behaviour of the organization had caused a great amount of negative effects on the community. First off the Chemical that had been going around in the areas water had been intoxicating and increasing the risk of cancer. A great number of people had been affected, including children, which lead to a lot of stress on parents and family members. The medical bills and the risk of a loved one's life had created a great amount of distress throughout the community. The community have been removed from they basic right of safety and healthy living.

Pollution was another unethical situation from the movies. The toxins that the company was using were clearly very dangerous to humans, and it was also very harmful to the environment, especially the water system. PG&E is known as a very unethical organization since they seem to not care about sustainability. PG&E did not implement any rules for keeping the water system clear, which lead to the safety of the community. In the film the act of not putting liners around the pool was greatly highlighted.This was very bad for the environment and obviously the people who were depending on this water system. 

The organizations dilemma did not come to a conclusion until the end of the film when they claimed that “PG&E claims to no longer use hexavalent chromium in any of their compressor plants and holding ponds are now lined to prevent groundwater contamination.” It took 5 lawsuits from Erin Brockovich and Ed Masry to get them to stop with their contaminants. The organization had skipped some steps which could have helped to keep the environment safer. PG&E could have resolved this ethical issue easily, however instead continued on their path of unethical behavior which they paid for in the long run.

In my opinion, people are way more important than profits. People deserve their basic rights, as in their education, health and safety but also they deserve to have their own personal lives. As we can see from the movie, the people in the community were removed from their basic right of being healthy due to the PG&E contamination of toxins had affected the health of several people, including children. Therefore it wasn’t fair for the community to suffer for someone's actions which only benefits themselves. For example when the organization offered the Jenson’s home money for causing their daughter illness. The Jenson’s felt disrespected because to amount of money will ever replace a child.

First off I would have apologized to everyone in the community, for the companies dishonesty, and for all the people and family members who are suffering health problems. I would have helped out with the medical expenses of whoever was affected, and promised the community that we would stop polluting their water source and the environment and that we are willing to do what is needed for the benefit of the community as a whole, which would be to completely stop using these toxins.