Civil Action: Inquisitorial System

Seeing the movie, A Civil Action, puts into action the material we have learned in the course involving before, during, and after a trial. At the beginning of the film, a young man serves the summons and complaint to the defendants. The complaint was served personally to the various defendants, at the place of work. Serving the defendants the lawsuit paperwork notifies them that there has been a complaint filed against them. Another tactic that is seen in the film for pre-trial is how they are using the tools of discovery to find evidence against the other party. The plaintiff’s lawyer, Jan Schlichtmann, questions potential witnesses and employees of W.R Grace and Beatrice Foods in this law firm, to see if they are willing to testify against …show more content…
Apart from this system, there is the inquisitorial system, which is different from the adversarial system. The adversarial system is when the prosecution and the defense are trying to have the most compelling argument to convince the jury or the judge that their clients are the ones who have all the truth in the case. The court primarily plays as a referee between the prosecution and the defense. In the inquisitorial system, the court is involved in investigating the facts of the case. The court is aimed to get the truth of the matter by investigating and examining all the evidence. Critics of the adversarial approach argue that the pursuit of winning often overshadows the search for truth (Ministry of Justice 2013). In the adversarial approach, as we can see in the film, the attorneys are mostly interested in winning the case so they can obtain compensation for their work, all whining back down to money. In the beginning of the film, Jan Schlichtmann did not want to represent the people in the town that have had children pass away due to the contaminated water. The main reason why he did not want to take the case was because he did not know if the people responsible were big wealthy corporations. If Schlichtmann were to agree to take the case, he knew that the defendants had to be wealthy companies in order for them to receive a very generous compensation at the end of the case. Once Schlichtmann took the case on, he knew he had to win the case in order to pay back all the debt that has gone into the case. Additionally, the defendants did not want to lose the case and to lose a vast amount of their money. Even though the companies W.R Grace and Beatrice Foods knew that they were illegally dumping toxic chemicals near the river, everything in their power was done to cover up the lies. The defendants would do or say anything so the truth would not come out. In the adversarial