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Ed Masry gives Erin a job in the firm Masry & Vititoe.
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Erin is given files for a real-estate case where Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) is offering to purchase the home of Hinkley, California, resident Donna Jensen. Erin starts to investigate.
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Erin is surprised because of the medical records and visits Donna.
Donna explains that her family has had several health problems and that PG&E paid for the doctors. Erin asks why they would do that, and Donna replies, "because of the chromium". -
Erin begins digging into the case.
Erin finds evidence that the groundwater in Hinkley is contaminated with carcinogenic hexavalent chromium, but PG&E has been telling Hinkley residents that they use a safer form of chromium. -
Erin meets with a toxicologist.
The expert gave her a list of problems that came from hexavalent chromium exposure. -
Erin searches for information in the Lahontan Regional Water Board.
She finds in the records a cleanup and abatement order that says that the water of Hinkley is polluted with hexavalent Chromium. This incriminates the corporation. -
Erin losses her job
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Masry looks for Erin again.
Ed Masry gives Erin her job back after receiving a note from a professor from UCLA. She continues with her investigation and informs Donna about her findings. Other people start to get involved. -
PG&E's Claims Department contact the firm.
The Corporation takes notice of the work Erin has been doing. She convinces Ed Masry that people deserve more. -
Erin starts to visit people from the community.
She arranges a meeting with some of them and the lawyer, and they agree to be represented by the firm. -
She gathers evidence for the trial.
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Erin is threatened.
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A judge decides that the case should go to trial.
A major firm gets involved and Kurt Potter finances the expenses of the case. -
Ed Masry takes the opportunity to arrange for disposition by binding arbitration.
Binding arbitration is the process by which the parties to a dispute submit their differences to the judgment of an impartial person or group appointed by mutual consent or statutory provision. -
Erin persuades all 634 plaintiffs to go along with binding arbitration.
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A man tells her he was tasked with destroying documents at PG&E.
The man noticed the medical conditions plaguing the workers and kept the documents instead of destroying them. He then gives the documents to her. A 1966 memo proves corporate headquarters knew the water was contaminated with hexavalent chromium, did nothing about it, and advised the Hinkley operation to keep this secret. -
Erin and Ed Masry win the case.
The judge orders PG&E to pay a settlement amount of $333 million to be distributed among the plaintiffs.
