There are many great lawyer and courtroom movies, but the list of movies about tort cases is much shorter. A tort case is a civil lawsuit where one person or entity (the plaintiff) holds another person or entity (the defendant) legally responsible for a wrongful act that causes physical, financial, psychological, or property harm. For your viewing pleasure, here is a list of movies about tort cases worth watching. Let us know if we missed a favorite of yours.
Primary topic: Medical malpractice
Description: A struggling plaintiff’s lawyer rejects a settlement and takes a difficult malpractice case against a powerful hospital to trial.
Stars: Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden, James Mason
Primary topic: Toxic tort and mass tort
Description: A legal assistant uncovers evidence linking contaminated groundwater to residents’ illnesses and helps build a massive claim.
Stars: Julia Roberts (Academy Award for Best Actress), Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart
Primary topic: Insurance bad faith and wrongful death
Description: A young plaintiff’s lawyer takes on an insurer that refused to pay for lifesaving treatment for a leukemia patient.
Stars: Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Claire Danes, Jon Voight
Primary topic: Toxic tort and environmental mass tort
Description: A corporate defense lawyer investigates evidence that DuPont’s PFOA chemical contaminated drinking water and endangered communities.
Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp
Primary topic: Toxic tort and wrongful death
Description: A plaintiff’s lawyer risks his firm and fortune representing families who claim industrial groundwater contamination caused their children’s leukemia.
Stars: John Travolta, Robert Duvall, William H. Macy, Tony Shalhoub
Primary topic: Product liability and defective automobiles
Description: A plaintiff’s lawyer suing an automaker discovers that his estranged daughter is working on the defense team.
Stars: Gene Hackman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Laurence Fishburne
Primary topic: Employment discrimination and wrongful termination
Description: An attorney fired after his firm discovers he has AIDS hires a lawyer to sue his former employer for discrimination.
Stars: Tom Hanks (Academy Awards for Best Actor), Denzel Washington, Jason Robards, Antonio Banderas. Academy Award for Best Original Song — Streets of Philadelphia.
Primary topic: Employment discrimination and sexual harassment
Description: A female mine worker challenges pervasive sexual harassment and helps bring a landmark class-action discrimination case.
Stars: Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sissy Spacek
Primary topic: Personal injury and tort reform
Description: This documentary revisits the McDonald’s hot-coffee case and examines public perceptions of plaintiffs and tort law
Primary topic: Personal injury and insurance claims
Description: An unscrupulous lawyer persuades his cameraman brother-in-law to exaggerate injuries after an accident at a football game.
Stars: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau (Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor).
Primary Topic: Product liability and personal injury
Description: After years of injuries caused by malfunctioning Acme products, Wile E. Coyote hires a struggling personal-injury lawyer to sue the corporation.
Stars: Will Forte, John Cena, Lana Condor; Eric Bauza among the voice cast