Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Massachusetts

Recovery of money paid after no-fault accident

My sister was involved in a car accident in which the passenger in the other car was killed. She crashed into the car when her brakes failed. She pled guilty to avoid putting the victim's family through a trial. My sister was on my mother's insurance policy, so the victim's widow received $50,000 (the maximum) from my mother's insurance company, but threatened to sue my family for more unless we paid her $15,000. My mom agreed to pay the money to avoid the lawsuit. Shortly afterwards, however, the victim's widow wrote a letter to my sister stating that she did not believe my sister was at fault in the accident at all. If the victim's widow stated in writing she didn't believe my sister was at all responsible, and she was already paid the maximum $50,000 from my mother's insurance policy, shouldn't we then be entitled to our $15,000 back? How can the woman collect additional money from my family and threaten to sue us if she now admits the accident was not at all my sister's fault? Isn't that fraud? What are our legal options for recovering our $15,000?

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