Erin Brockovich, a 2000 Jersy Film Production, staring Julia Roberts is based on a true story that involved Pacific Gas and Electric Company using hexavalent chromium or chromium six as a rust inhibitor to prevent corrosion of pistons used in engines. According to the movie, for fourteen years, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company had been dumping water containing chromium six into ponds and covering them over. The ponds were not lined and the chromium based water leaked into the local water supply exposing residents of Hinkley, California to chromium six. Repeated exposure to hexavalent chromium causes chronic headaches, cancer, nose bleeds, bone and organ deterioration, respiratory failure, liver failure, heart failure, bone or organ
She was able to get into the water district's files by wearing a mini skirt and showing off her cleavage. She was also able to get people to talk to her about their medical problems and convince them to hire Masry as their lawyer. She was probably the only person capable of getting the citizens of Hinkley to all sign the binding arbitration agreement which was necessary to get the case into court and decided. Her power of persuasion with people evident as the lawyers continued to fall on their faces when it came to dealing with the clients. Without her, there is no way this case could have been stirred up as it did and finally resolved in the manner with which it was. There was, of course, the corporate power and intimidation at work in the movie. Erin received a creepy phone call from someone telling her to stay off the case, as well as the intimidation shown through the Pacific Gas and Electric's lawyers. Masry mentioned several times throughout the movie that he was not sure if they could win, that they were up against a huge multi-billion dollar corporation, a corporation that had the power to and the resources to drive a small lawyer firm into bankruptcy or bury them in paperwork for the next thirty years. Luckily, the compassion and drive to do what was morally right which Erin Brockovich possessed was enough power to battle and