Activity 1A: Speaking Civilly
A comprehensive vocabulary list of words taught and used in this unit is
available here:
http://lawandjustice.edc.org/sites/lawandjustice.edc.org/files/FL4/VocabularyList.pdf
Activity 1B: What’s Fair?
Teaching Resources for A Civil Action
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
This site, funded by the National Science Foundation, provides teachers with
learning modules, resource collections, and supporting teaching materials on the
book and movie A Civil Action. In particular, see “Science in the Courtroom: The
Woburn Toxic Trial.”
http://serc.carleton.edu/woburn/index.html
A Woburn Skeptics’ Page
This site, created by Walter Olson, contains several editorial pieces written
for newspapers and magazines after the movie A Civil Action was released,
questioning some of the depictions of main characters and events.
http://walterolson.com/articles/civilact.html
Denvir, John. “My Take: What Movies Teach Law Students.” Picturing Justice: The
Online Journal of Law and Popular Culture. Sponsored by the University of San
Francisco School of Law.
http://usf.usfca.edu/pj//teach_denvir.htm
Activity 1G: Show Me the Money
Hot Coffee: Is Justice Being Served?
Teacher Login Required: To view the 15-minute video segment of Hot Coffee: Is
Justice Being Served? please login to the Law and Justice Web site and go to Unit
4: Lawsuits and Liability for access.
To purchase Hot Coffee, a documentary feature film, go to www.hotcoffeethemovie.com.
Contributory Negligence vs. Comparative Negligence
This page on The Personal Injury Lawyer Directory Web site contains a good
overview of the differences between comparative and contributory negligence.
It also includes a link to a “Comparative Fault by State” chart indicating which
states use which systems.