A Civil Action

In the movie A Civil Action, Jan Schlichtmann is forced to discover what it means to find true self. When we first see him in the beginning of the movie, Jan is a very money-oriented person who tries to, literally, get as much money as he possibly can. In the movie, he states that the best person to be a lawyer for is a Man, 30-40 years old and hurt in a head on car crash(just what I think-probably not what is in the movie). He gets a call about a water contamination case north of Boston; he goes to this small town and truly is just a smarmy guy. He is on the lookout for himself, and himself only. He does not want to do this case because he knows that child death is the kind of case that will get him the least amount of money; he says no. He returns to his firm and realizes that if he does take this case on he will be able to rack up a huge some of money. 

     He takes this case on and right from the get-go, he puts his whole firm under and into debt. He soon realizes that money is not just the answer and that truly helping someone can be the best thing you can do. Jan puts the firm into a huge amount of debt but he never wants to give up, even up 'till the end. The Grace company is only willing to give the families 8 million for their losses( 8 million minus the debt the lawyers collected). 

     Jan was an arrogant self centered man at the beginning of the book, and transformed into a caring person who doesn't think about money 24/7; hae became a changed man for good