To be clear, the law makes no distinction between married or unmarried victims of sexual assault.
What's underlying the whole discussion about whether to take the settlement offers, is the fact that in the U.S., juries and not judges usually decide the monetary award. Because of this, amounts can be very, very unpredictable. Juries are notorious for taking things into consideration that are not supposed to have any impact on the outcome; in other words, they tend to make more emotional judgments.
I know Carol knows all this; I'm just jumping in as the "Legal Junk/Mumbo Jumbo" interpreter.
