I'm not sure what the big deal is here. She tried to settle before filing. O'Reilly called her attempt to settle "extortion" in his own (ridiculous) suit. She wants to settle now, before discovery has started, so it isn't too expensive to pursue the case.

It is a lawsuit, not a criminal complaint. All Mackris ever asked for was money. Did you expect the relatively poor person (or her contingency-fee (probably) lawyer to fight a rich person and a media conglomerate until they were broke?

I don't know about the merits of the case, but lawyers tend to see settling as a good thing.

I think it is extortion, if you don't want to take it to trial and just want to take the cash and run. The point should be to punish the guilty not monetarily reward the accuser.

Are you familiar with our legal system? The cost of moral justice is wicked high. We've chosen as a society to substitute money for justice because Justice + $1 = begging for change to take the train home from the courthouse.

Can I assume you also think that Edwards' clients were "extorting" the companies that made products that mangled them?

Hell yes.

Dude, Kobe and Bill are two dogs of entirely different...umm...I want to say feathers here, but that just doesn't seem right. Moving on, a better analogy would be Mcgreevey and O'reilly (purported work place sexual harrassers). You went on and on about how mcgreevey was guilty of this and that, not once did you mention extortion then. Suddenly ohhhh extortion-- psshaa, ugarte is right on the money on this one.

The fact that Golan dropped the charges definitely lead me to believe he was extorting McGreevey. It's the lack of follow-through in both of these cases that make the accuser look like money-hungry liars.

Well, Karol, if you can tell that the parents of the woman killed by the Boston PD how to get their daughter back, I'll bet they would agree not to sue the city. Otherwise, I would expect them to 'extort' Boston for upwards of a mil. That case is NEVER going to see the inside of a courtroom.

Is that mil going to bring their daughter back?

Nah, but it'll get them some phat bling bling ya heard!

No. So I guess Boston shouldn't pay at all. I suppose that they feel really, really bad about it though, so that's probably punishment enough.

Otherwise, file criminal charges. I don't know what money does other than corrupts the process (see: Brooklyn, NY car accident lawsuits).

So the cop should go to jail for doing his job?

Dawn would you be defending the cops if this victim had a darker hued skin?

hmm, why Radical Redneck? Do you only support cops who kill people of a darker hue?

Answer the question.

"Otherwise, file criminal charges. I don't know what money does other than corrupts the process "

1. The average citizen does not have the right to file criminal charges.

2. Civil law is designed to deter a range of behavior normally not covered by criminal statutes. If you want people to go to jail for failing to shovel their sidewalks or making lewd comments to the secretary, I guess I'm OK with that, but it seems kind of inefficient.

3. If pushing through to trial is the mark of a litigant truly committed to the justice of his/her cause, why did O'Reilly settle? He undoubtedly has more resources to fight this battle than this chick suing him.