The city of Chicago has finally settled a lawsuit brought by 16 Illinois citizens who alleged they were wrongfully arrested during a massive anti-war protest in 2003.

According to a report in the Chicago Tribune, the settlement brings an end to years of legal wrangling over the personal injury lawsuit, and observes speculate that this settlement signals a potential end to a much larger dispute involving 800 other people arrested during the protest.

News of the settlement was announced this week by U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall, who had been prepared to preside over the large class action lawsuit at trial.

Instead of opting for trial, however, the city admitted defeat and agreed to settlement, which could potentially limit the losses the city may have suffered at trial.

Still, the city may have to pay a tidy sum to the plaintiffs, though the financial details of the settlement were not publicly released. Nevertheless, Chicago officials wanted to avoid the costly mistake of taking these disputes to trial, as other cities have recently learned.

In addition to the financial aspect of the wrongful arrest settlement, a member of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s admitted that the case has changed the way the city’s police force handles large gatherings and protests.

The mayor’s staff cites the police department’s handling of the recent Occupy Chicago protests as evidence of its changed tactics. During the recent Occupy protests, Chicago police gave protestors a chance to leave the streets, and only arrested them if they wanted to make a political statement.

Some city officials, however, remain skeptical that the police force has sufficiently evolved to handle the inevitable large protests that will arrive in Chicago this May, when both G-8 and NATO summits hit the Windy City.

When the G-8 economic summits have taken place at other American, large protests always ensue, and there’s little reason to believe that Chicago will be an exception.

However, other city leaders are confident the police can handle the summits. According to Alderman Patrick O’Connor, “I think if you look at the way we’ve comported ourselves since then, obviously we haven’t had any large protest, but we took lessons from what happened the last time and I think they’ll be incorporated this time.”

At the very least, police will have to avoid the errors of the 2003 protests, when they allowed protestors to gather without a permit and then began indiscriminately arresting bystanders without giving them a warning that they were acting illegally.

Such strong-arm tactics proved costly for the city, and must be eliminated from the force’s repertoire before the city is inundated with an estimated 10,000 protestors this spring.

If things get frisky, Chicago police may have to add more payments to the $5.4 million they’ve had to shell out for police misconduct in the past six months.