A Civil Action

1

For the next eighteen months, the Woburn case is in the background of Jan’s life and there is little movement. After a successful case involving a hotel fire, Jan does not receive the recognition he feels he is owed and he leaves Reed & Mulligan to start his own firm. A lawyer named Bill Crowley goes with him, and so does Conway. Schlichtmann, Conway & Crowley kicks off its opening day with a huge party. Over a hundred lawyers come, along with Teresa and many old friends. That night, Conway asks Jan to get rid of Woburn. But Jan isn’t able to cut ties yet. His philosophy for the firm is that they will only take cases with large potential rewards and that would also require a huge investment of time, money, and energy. He and Conway agree to take only ten new cases each year. They quickly reject frivolous cases, which they call “dogs.”

Other cases are called “orphans.” These are cases that looked like they might be winnable but had been rejected by other law firms. Most of the orphans are medical malpractice cases, which are notoriously difficult to prove. For six months, Jan focuses solely on the case of a young man named Paul Carney, who was in a minor car accident and suffered whiplash, but left the hospital, five months later, having contracted a massive infection during his stay that disintegrated the bones of his hips.