Erin Brockovich - Preface

Movie poster for "Erin Brockovich," copyright Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures, all rights reserved.  Image provided here as fair use for educational purposes. 

Mr. Masry's office has done an incredible job.
I don't know where he got this stuff,
ferreting out information
for the past several months
that will make your hair stand up on edge.

Walter Lack 
January 4, 1994

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) was in trouble.

Serious trouble.

Four decades after the world's largest utility started dumping 370 million gallons of cancer-causing chemicals into unlined ponds in Hinkley, California, the company's actions had finally been uncovered.

Uncovered by Erin Brockovich (a formerly unemployed, single mother of three working in a California law firm) who wanted to know what medical records had to do with a real estate file.

What she found out led to a record-breaking settlement for a group of class-action plaintiffs.