Mitigation of Damages?

[jmfeathe]

We have been summoned to circuit court by a former neighbor of ours that was bitten by our dog. We offered to make payments on her medical bills when this happened. She was able to get the hospital to agree to a payment plan of $40.00 a month and we were happy to pay it. Soon after she decided that she wanted all the money up front in cash and did not supply us with the necessary information to send payments. We did not have that amount of money and again offered payments as that was all we could afford. We cannot afford an attorney so I spoke with her lawyer about a settlement of making her payments on her medical bills. Now that the attorney knows that we do not have insurance and do not own anything or have any money I am confident that he will advise her to take payments. Since we are agreeing to the exact same terms that we offered before she hired an attorney, can I argue a failure to mitigate damages and not have to pay her attorney's fees? Thank you.