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Banks's novel is a multiple first person narrative depicting life in a small town in upstate New York in the wake of a terrible school bus accident in which numerous local children are killed. Hardly able to cope with the loss, their grieving parents are approached by a slick city lawyer who wants them to sue for damagesDamages in law has two different meanings. It is used to refer both to the harm suffered by a plaintiff in a civil action, and to any monies paid or awarded to him to compensate for said harm. Generally, there are three kinds of damages: special damages,. At first the parents are reluctant to do so, but eventually they are persuaded by the lawyer that filing a class actionIn law a class action is a practical procedural device in litigation for determining the rights of and remedies, if any, for large numbers of people who have in common questions of law and fact. Class Actions in the United States Class Action lawsuits may lawsuitA lawsuit is a civil action brought before a court in order to recover a right, obtain damages for an injury, obtain an injunction to prevent an injury, or obtain a declaratory judgment to prevent future legal disputes. It usually involves dispute resolut would ease their minds and also be the right thing to do.
As most of the children are dead, it depends on the few surviving witnesses to say the right thing now in court. In particular, it is 15 year-old Nichole Burnell, now paralysed from the waist down, whose depositionIn law, a deposition is the act or fact of taking sworn testimony of a witness outside of court, in certain well-defined circumstances. It is a part of the discovery process whereby litigants obtain information from each other in preparation for trial. is all-important. However, she unexpectedly accuses Dolores Driscoll, the driver, of speeding and thus causing the accident. When she does so, all hopes of ever receiving money are thwarted. All the people involved know that Nichole is lying but cannot do anything about it. Only her father knows why, but he feels unable to reveal his daughter's motives.
Both the novel and the film are about capturing the atmosphere in a small town suddenly shaken by catastrophe. Whole families move away, fathers take to drinkingAlcoholism is an addictive dependency on alcohol characterised by craving (a strong need to drink); loss of control (being unable to stop); physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms; and tolerance (increasing difficulty of becoming drunk). 1820 Alcoholi, secret affairs are abruptly ended. Only the reader/viewer knows that Mitchell Stephens, the lawyer, is himself a troubled man who has effectively lost his own child—his estranged, drug-addicted daughter who informs him over the phone that she has just tested HIVThe Human immunodeficiency virus HIV is a frequently mutating retrovirus that attacks the human immune system and which has been shown to cause acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). History HIV was discovered and identified as the agent for AIDS by positive.