In the movie A Civil Action, the trial procedure was shown throughout the entire movie. There are many steps that must be completed before a verdict and judgment can be reached. These steps are the pleadings, discovery methods, preliminary hearings, jury selection, opening statements, introduction of evidence, cross-examinations, closing arguments, jury instructions, verdict, and sentence. The case in this movie was actually called Anderson v. Cryovac. The plaintiffs are the Anderson family, the Gamache family, the Kane family, the Robbins family, the Toomey family and the Zona family. The plaintiffs' attorneys are Jan Schlichtmann, Joe Mulligan, Anthony Roisman, Charlie Nesson and Kevin Conway. The two co-defendants are WR Grace and Beatrice Foods. The attorneys for the two co-defendants are William Cheeseman, Jerome Facher, Neil Jacobs and Michael Keating. In the pleadings, the plaintiff must make a complaint to the court and the defendants. In this case, a complaint was filed for manslaughter and injunctions. The complaint was filed with both companies on May 14, 1982. Then, the defendants must respond within twenty-four hours of receiving the complaint to the summons or risk losing the case by default of the court. WR Grace denied the charges against them. Furthermore, their other defenses were that the complaint did not state any cause of action, in the complaint the company named was misnamed, the company always followed due diligence and acted in "good faith" and the claims against them are banned. The next step concerns discovery methods. Discovery methods occur when both parties present all the evidence they have. Both parties have the right to cross-examine all witnesses of all… halfway through the document… presented, both parties must rest their cases. Before the jury decides on a verdict, the last step in the trial process is the closing argument. There were no closing arguments because the parties had to settle for nine million dollars. They did this because the plaintiff's lawyers went bankrupt because of this case and could not afford to put any more money into the case. Beatrice Foods ended up not being responsible for the deaths of children, so they were allowed to drop the case. For this reason only WR Grace had to negotiate with the plaintiff. Later in 1988, Jan Schlichtmann brought this case to the attention of the EPA and the EPA decided to file suit against the companies. WR Grace and Beatrice Foods ended up having to pay for their huge mistake. They had to pay for the largest chemical cleanup in the Northeast, costing sixty-four million dollars.