A Civil Action

The legal system is ostensibly a tool for delivering justice. However, A Civil Action suggests that the fragility of the system is inescapable once one sees the machinations that comprise a case that goes to trial. There is no such thing as perfect justice. Rather, justice depends on the disposition of the plaintiff, the experience and temperament of the ruling judge, the histories and attention spans of the jurors and lawyers, and innumerable other factors. By the end of the case, there are aspects of the outcome that, though they may look like justice, have come about haphazardly or by accident. Moreover, regardless of the outcome, people define justice in different ways. A lawyer may feel that justice has been served after winning a case, while a grieving parent may not.

A Civil Action considers the ramifications of all these concerns. It presents the legal process as a bureaucratic chess match in which technicalities, strategies, and ways of shifting the jury’s focus count for more than the case’s facts or the human lives involved. For example, in Chapter 6 when Richard Aufiero is deposed by counsel from Grace and Beatrice, Facher tries to play up Aufiero’s questionable past and downplay the