We’ve all seen the ads that litter broadcast TV, law firms pleading for potential clients to come forward and join class action lawsuits against Big Pharma, Big Investment, Big Credit Card, Big Chemicals and about the “water” at Camp LeJeune.

Even if you’ve agreed to participate in such cases (and shaken your head over a pitiful payout). you probably mutter “ambulance chasers” at the TV every time another such suit ad pops up.

“Into the Weeds” is a documentary that could change your point of view of the “billable hours” boys and girls.

Canadian documentary Jennifer Baichwal’s film is about the long-gestating, fiercely-litigated case about chemical conglomerate Monsanto, its weed killer Roundup and its “commercial” cousin, Ranger Pro.

Interviewing cancer patient farmers and a California school system caretaker, Dewayne Lee Johnson, lawyers, experts on chemicals, experts on insects and lots and lots of lawyers, Baichwal paints a picture of a “system” designed to protect “us” that’s broken and a company that sold a poison invented to strip metal machine parts that turned out to be deadly to weeds.

Monstanto knew for decades Roundup could cause cancer.

It’s a film almost buried under facts and figures, all the places Roundup is applied — from the clueless labor saving neighbor to Big Power companies that turn thousands of miles of “utility corridor” land underneath power lines into a brown, nearly lifeless desert rather than trimming trees and mowing. All through the food chain, on forests, farmland and on crops, sprayed by hand, by machine or dumped by helicopter all over, Roundup’s active chemical is a nasty ingredient in our eco system and our lives.

But Baichwal — the Tragically Hip music doc “Long Time Running” was hers — finds drama in the courtroom. Monsanto figures are grilled in depositions, caught in lie after lie, researchers bought and paid for (Dr. Marvin Kushner in the ’80s), EPA corruption in the mid-2010s (Jess Rowland, take a bow!).

“EPA has been captured by an industry,” one lawyer fumes, calling Big Chem a “cartel” that is overseeing its own oversight thanks to lax government intervention.

There is a lot to be outraged about as Canadian First Nation natives complain about tree plantation spraying that wipes out forest ecosystems, entomologists tie insect declines (bees, butterflies, etc) to these chemicals, and farmers and Johnson mutter about how they weren’t warmed.

As with Big Tobacco and the lead producing industries, efforts were poured into smearing research and researchers and even the rock singer/songwriter Neil Young — who sang about Monsanto — rather than trying to fix Monsanto’s deadly problem, or at least warn those using its product that no amount of safety gear would make them 100% protected from the glyphosphate ingredient that wipes out weeds.

Depositions from victims form a “non-Hodgkins lymphoma” montage of suffering and lawyers talk about the computer algorithms and computer time necessary to find incriminating emails and documents from a company that buried them under fifteen million such files.

But find them they did. And when they nail this exec, that product safety overseer and others with a “You wrote this?” disputing a lie they just re-told, it’s very satisfying.

“Into the Weeds” lives up to its title, thanks to having to boil complex science, a wide-ranging tragedy and scandal and mini profiles of those trapped in it or fighting in court into a 96 minute film. The film is a lot to digest and can feel cluttered and rushed, saving time for a long rap by aspiring musician Johnson in the closing scene.

But the lawyers present themselves as the last line of defense when industry and government won’t protect us. So if nothing else, it may cure you of the urge to mutter “ambulance chasers” at every class action ad you see on TV from here on out.

Rating: unrated

Cast: Dewayne Lee Johnson, Cali Baldelomar, Michelle Baldelomar, Robin Greenwald, Raymond Owl, Michael J. Miller and Aimee Wagstaff.

Credits: Directed by Jennifer Baichwal, scripted by Jennifer Baichwal and Michael McGowan. A Film Movement release.

Running time: 1:36