Ethical problems in the film Erin BrockovichThere are many ethical problems in the film Erin Brockovich. This film is about a mother of three who discovers a case of water poisoning by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) in Southern California. Once it was proven that the company had knowingly discharged hexavalent chromium into the groundwater, the utility company was held liable for a $330 million verdict. Erin has the responsibility of feeding and educating her three children and has a general distrust of people. She begins by forcing her lawyer Ed Masry to give her a secretarial job after he fails to get her compensation for a car accident. It makes him feel guilty about the way he currently lives and puts the blame on him. She figures this would make things right. However, it is not a perfect fit for the company. The other colleagues do not approve of her clothing and the cleavage she shows. The women in the office won't let Erin go out to lunch or even help her when she asks for assistance. Once, when she asked for help, the women refused to help her saying that if she doesn't know the job yet, that's her problem. Women treat her badly, but I think they are surprised by the person she really is and how hard a worker she is. Erin fights for respect and acceptance from a world that tends to judge only by appearance. Ed accuses her of extortion when she tries to get a raise from him every time he approves of her doing more work on the PG&E case. He asks for a salary increase and perks for the event at one point. Ed ends up giving it to her maybe because he knows she has something in mind and it could end up being really great. However, they lived in… paper halves. They instead chose to protect their company by creating a plan to purchase these homes and hide any evidence that would be lying around. Company lawyers choose to sacrifice the lives of neighbors to protect company assets even though PG&E is a $28 billion company. It was believed that it would be cheaper for PG&E to illegally dispose of the chemicals since company officials were more concerned with profits than people's lives. The withholding of this critical information had tragic consequences for those involved. PG&E must have realized it was at fault as it settled the case for $330 million in private arbitration. All in all, it probably ended up costing PG&E more money than it would have if they had properly lined the water pools and taken care of things properly to begin with..