Week 2 EOC: Erin Brockovich

In the case of PG&E vs. the people of the town of Hinkley 333 million was awarded. It was divided amongst the people after the initial 40% cut was taken out for the lawyers. The 40% amounted to a little over 133 million dollars. The cut for each person who was affected in this case was 300,000 dollars apiece. Erin Brockovich herself earned a 2 million dollar bonus for working the case.

I believe the victims weren’t all awarded correctly, because unlike Ms. Brockovich, they didn’t know how to go about extorting the law. She used her assets to extort documents; she extorted her boss with the same documents in order to get her job back. She then used the case in order to get a raise from her boss when she would gain new evidence in the case.

There is a difference though between Erin Brockovich extorting the law, and a lawyer extorting the law.
Erin Brockovich is just your run of the mill person who was tired of justice not prevailing. She really felt the need of the people and she wanted to make a difference. A lawyer on the other hand tends to be jaded to justice. They are blind to right, and wrong, and instead see the case as either settling, or winning. There is no in-between and when they do lose a case it costs them; because the money when the case is lost comes out of their pockets. So when a person has a case that is as big as the case Erin Brockovich's law firm took on, it is a bit scary. The investment the law firm put in was huge due to the fact that they were going against a company as big as PG&E. The odds of winning were not in their favor. But what makes this story such a good one is that justice did prevail. People were awarded, maybe not what they all deserved, but they were still awarded which is better than nothing.

The case was one of big companies bullying everyday people. The sad part is because of lawyers having to put a personal investment into every case, justice does not always win out. The law was taken to its full extent here in this case, but only because the lawyers were not held back by numbers. It goes to show you the law can only do so much unless you do know how to extort it. Which i do not believe is a bad thing. I believe it shows determination for justice prevailing in which it did in this case.

All numerical amounts and facts in this blog are from:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195685/faq

Week 1 EOC: My Voice

As a professional in the audio industry, I have always believed in following your dreams no matter how big or small they may be.  I grew up in a musical family. I toured with them as a child and growing up. We were never rich, always scraping by to make it, but that is what makes life worth living: family, love, and the race. The audio industry, just like any other industry is a that race, a challenge in and of itself to stand out and make it. In order to rise up to the challenge you need to have the love of audio, people to fall back on, and the desire to make it no matter what. I believe i have that something; that will power to make a difference and the desire. Since i have lived around musicians music was always seen as genetic thing; something that comes naturally. I know how to play 7 different instruments yet even with those its not really the instrument that gets to me, i love the audio portion of it. Every little intricate detail that makes up each tone and sound as a whole. The emotion each sound vibration causes the listener in their heart inspires me to want to create that experience.  To create the emotion that causes the listener to make a change, to make a difference and in turn that will be me making a difference in their life and will hopefully create a ripple effect in the world as we know it. To make that ripple into something bigger is my goal.