connor comment

I thought your post was good and well thought out but in my opinion the spilling water has to do with the fact he should have been looking for the person that cleaned up the spill not the person who spilled it

A Civil Action

I think at the begging of the movie Schlichtman is all he was all about the money and reputation. He turns down the case until he finds out that the company that would be charged is owned by a large rich company so then he says he'll do it. As he gets more into the case and gets to know some of the people affected he starts to really only care about justice which is weird for a guy like him.