Topics: Motivation

 

Travels from: US

Erin Brockovich

In 1990 Erin Brockovich was seriously injured in a traffic accident in Reno, NV. In 1991, she hired the law firm of Masry and Vititoe to handle her car accident case. Although she received $17,000 in settlement money, it did not begin to cover her debts. Unable to find work, she soon begged Masry and Vititoe to hire her as a $1,200.00 a month file clerk. It was not long after she started to work at the law firm that some medical records she found in a file on a pro bono real estate case piqued her curiosity. After getting permission from the firms' principal, Ed Masry, she began to look into the matter. Erin's solo investigation eventually established that the health of countless people who lived in and around Hinkley, California in the 1960's, 70's and 80's had been devastated by exposure to toxic Chromium 6. The Chromium 6 had leaked into the groundwater from the nearby Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Compressor Station. In 1996, as a result of the largest direct action lawsuit of its kind, spearheaded by Erin Brockovich and Ed Masry, the giant utility was ordered to make the largest legal settlement in U.S. history, paying out some $333 million in damages to more than 600 Hinkley residents. No longer a file clerk, Erin now serves as director of environmental research at Masry and Vititoe, where she is currently involved in other major environmental lawsuits that she put together. Remarried in 1999 to actor Eric Ellis, she lives with her husband and children in Agoura Hills, California. Erin has received a number of awards and honors for her work with the environment.