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Message:: [QUOTE="satootoko, post: 189230, member: 669"]Perhaps. In my 30+ years of active practice I participated in at least 100 settlement/mediation conferencess.  Confidential settlements invariable involve a need for one party or the other to save face, and any party's pronouncements on "being satisfied" with the disposition are absolutely meaningless.  One, or both, sides made statements like that in many of cases I was involved in with - shall we say - a significant lack of candor. The statement that means one of two things: <ul> <li>The Defendants paid nothing to the Plaintiffs, or</li> <li>The insurance carriers for the ANA and/or other defendants covered all expenditures.</li> </ul>The statement that could also result from various possible dispositions, for example: <ul> <li>The Plaintiffs received a substantial sum of money in settlement and/or they received some form of injunctive relief concerning future events, OR</li> <li>The Court had indicated an intent to enter a final dismissal without leave to file a fourth amended complaint, which would result in a substantial judgment for court costs and expenses against the Plaintiffs, and open the door to a countersuit for malicious prosecution; and Plaintiffs agreed to waive costs and refrain from filing a malicious prosecution complaint.</li> </ul>Due to the confidentiality order there is simply no way to determine whether ACG and the Hagers really won or lost.[/QUOTE]