Number one: she was NOT "out $930." The parents of the teenagers offered to reimburse her.
Number two: it was MRS. YOUNG who file the lawsuit, and who had any sort of cause to do so. SHE CHOSE. She could have accepted an entirely reasonable offer of resitution and a written apology. But guess what? She decided that an oral apology was worth GOING TO COURT FOR. (I'll bet she STILL hasn't received it.
Furthermore, you are making an completely unfounded allegation about the "greed" of the teenager's lawyer. What if he was a family friend who worked on this case for free? There is nothing in the article to indicate otherwise. Furthermore, there is no way that a defense attorney can force this thing to court just to make money.
Again, an ENTIRELY REASONABLE settlement was on the table to be accepted, and Mrs. Young refused. She chose to go to court and waste eveyrone's time. The only person to blame for escalating this past the family-to-family settlement stage is her. Not the lawyers, not the teens, not the teens' parents.
In order for you to credibly defend your position, you need to explain why it is ever---EVER---justifiable to go to court simply to extract an oral apology from somone. Allow me to submit: it NEVER is. You go to court to obtain compensation for damages suffered. But of course, Mrs. Young didn't need to go for THAT, because it had already been offered.
I actually agree with you that it is reasonable that the girls SHOULD have offered Mrs. Young an oral apology. I do not know why the lawyer recommended otherwise, though he may very well have had a genuinely sound reason. But even I grant that they SHOULD have done so, the fact that the DID NOT does not justify the lawsuit being filed, under ANY circumstances. It is simply not an acceptable response to such a refusal, period.
Again, I remind you: the judge basically accepted the offered settlement as sufficient. He agreed, then, that Mrs. Young wasted everyone's time.